Ambroise Wonkam Inaugural Lecture

Professor Ambroise Wonkam, deputy dean of research in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT), will discuss the clinical applications of DNA technology when he delivers his Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture on Wednesday, 13 March.

Titled “Enabling genetic medicine”, the lecture will examine how such technology can offer immediate benefits for healthcare. Wonkam will also address the issue of the increased evidence of participation of African scientists in genomics research against the lack of evidence of any major impact in practice.

Wonkam is the director of Genetic Medicine of African Populations (GeneMAP), and the recipient of the 2003 Denber-Pinard Prize for the best thesis from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He also won the British Society for Genetic Medicine’s Clinical Genetics Society International Award in 2014.

Wonkam is president of the African Society of Human Genetics, a member of the steering committee of Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium, board member of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies, council member of the Human Genome Organisation, and a steering committee member of the Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative.

The lecture will take place in the New Learning Centre Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, Anzio Road, Faculty of Health Sciences at 17:30 (doors open at 17:00).

For more information, email or phone 021 650 4847.