
MJD has been detected in children as young as six years old and is equally prevalent in both sexes until the age of 10. In adults this condition has been detected in 32-39% of the females and 10-11% of the males in the community (Fellingham et al., 1973; Yach and Botha, 1981). The higher prevalence in females may be attributable to migratory labour practices and cultural labour allocations that differ between the sexes.
Several potential cau

MJD is a chronic condition with a sweeping socio-economic impact on this community. It is a debilitating disease making daily chores difficult if not impossible depending on the severity of the condition. Many people in this region rely on their land for subsistence and inevitably depend on their families for survival. The impact is felt by y

Research Interest
As a post-doctoral student in South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand, I worked on this disease, but my research was reinvigorated in 2012 by a collaboration with the late, Dr. Deepak Naryan (Yale University). Currently, an inter-disciplinary collaboration between Dr. Robea Ballo and I at the University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa) with Dr. Victor Fredlund of the Mseleni Hospital (Mseleni, South Africa) is underway to provide a holistic understanding of MJD. Putative environmental and epigenetic risk factors are being explored using novel techniques from the fields of cell biology, genetics, epidemiology and biological anthropology.
Biological/Medical Anthropology
Expanding on my ear

Cellular Biology & Genetics
Dr. Robea Ballo from the Stem Cell Laboratory in the Department of Human Biology (UCT) leads the cell biology component of our investigation to better understand molecular pathogenesis of this disease. Her PhD was focused on MJD, returning to her roots, combined with her experience in generating patient-specific models of diseases from induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) is vital. Students in Dr Ballo’s team (Elizabeth Dinkele and Thulisa Mkatazo) have worked to reprogramme skin fibroblasts from MJD patients into iPSCs. Three-dimensional cartilage organoids differentiated from these iPSCs will be used to test the expression of genes suspected to be implicated in MJD. An MSc student, Thulisa Mkatazo, is testing the role of genes vital for cartilage development and maintenance. This work in generating cartilage organoids will be particularly useful to test cellular

Publications
Dinkele ES, Ballo R, Fredlund V, Ramesar R, Gibbon V. 2020. Mseleni joint disease: an endemic arthritis of unknown cause. The Lancet Rheumatology 2(1): e8-e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(19)30104-3
Gibbon VE, Harington JS, Penny CB. 2010. Mseleni Joint Disease: a potential model of epigenetic chondroplasia. Joint Bone Spine 77: 399-404 (rank 13/30; impact factor 3.218; citations: GS:6; WOS:3; S:4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2010.01.013
Gibbon VE, Harington JS, Penny CB. 2010. La maladie de Mseleni: un modèle potentiel de chondrodysplasie épigénétique. Revue du rhumatisme 77: 430-435. (Translated from the English version in Joint Bone Spine). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhum.2010.05.006
Ballo R, Viljoen D, Machado M, et al. 1996. Mseleni joint disease- amolecular genetic approach to defining the aetiology. South African Medical Journal 86: 956–958.
