Dr Brendon Price is a general consultant anatomical pathologist and the lead specialist for medical renal pathology (including transplant cases) and thyroid pathology.

He received a BSc degree summa cum laude in Biochemistry and Genetics in 1995, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry (2001), during which he applied techniques in protein chemistry, cell biology, and electron microscopy to investigate matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) in leukocytes and tumour cells. His work led to the discovery of a novel intracellular compartment within neutrophils containing TIMP-1, which displayed distinct regulatory and exocytotic behaviour compared to MMP-containing vesicles and other granules. Part of this research was conducted at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Bielefeld in Germany with remainder at University of Natal.

Following his PhD, Dr Price declined a postdoctoral position at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory/EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany) to work at the Electron Microscope Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he established recombinant protein expression systems and contributed to protein X-ray crystallography projects under Professor Trevor Sewell. He was also part of a team that developed cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) techniques to elucidate protein structures, particularly nitrilases.

In 2005, Dr Price began his medical training (MBBCh) via the Graduate Entry Medical Programme (GEMP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating with distinction in 2008. He completed his internship at GF Jooste Hospital in Cape Town, followed by community service in Kimberley, where he spent time in oncology. This was followed by experience in radiation oncology, providing him with a solid grounding in cancer therapy before transitioning into pathology.

Dr Price completed his FCPath(SA) Anat in 2018 and his MMed (Anat Path) in 2019. His MMed research focused on identifying high-risk HPV subtypes in cervical cancer using multiplex PCR on FFPE tissue samples, for which he conducted all laboratory work and assay optimization.

After joining the Division of Anatomical Pathology, Dr Price deepened his expertise in renal pathology, obtaining the ISN/ANIO Certificate in Nephropathology and attending both the European Renal Pathology Course (The Netherlands, 2019) and the International Summer School of Renal Pathology and Precision Medicine (Italy, 2024).

He has a strong interest in the intersection of pathology and technology, particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence. In 2022, he completed a certificate in AI through the University of Paris.

Dr Price’s research interests include the application of methylation microarray technology to CNS malignancies, for which he received the UCT Start-up Emerging Researcher Award (SERA) in 2020. He is currently the Principal Investigator on a multidisciplinary project to establish a tumour tissue repository (termed PATHCORE) supporting advanced cancer research—including genomics, proteomics, machine learning, and bioinformatics—focused on the five most common malignancies: breast, cervical, lung, colorectal, and prostate cancers. This initiative, supported by departments such as Computational Biology, Radiation Oncology, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, and Public Health, received funding from the UCT Cancer Research Initiative in 2025.

Dr Price is also a collaborative researcher and serves as co-investigator on multiple projects, including post-mortem studies of tuberculosis and spatial transcriptomic analyses of prostate and colorectal cancers.