The purpose of this award is to recognise and incentivise young and early research career fellows who publish their research work in high quality journals within their discipline.

For the 2018 best publication award there were two prizes: a postgraduate prize and an early career prize. For both prizes, authors could apply for one of three categories, namely basic sciences, clinical sciences and public health and rehabilitation sciences.

Applications are reviewed by the Faculty Research Sub-Committee of senior academics representing three categories i.e. clinical, basic sciences and public health and rehabilitation sciences. Reviewers use a comprehensive score sheet in each category which requires applicants to be the first author or acknowledged as the principal author of the publication. 

The prize is a cash award to the value of R10 000 for the early career prize and R5 000 for the postgraduate prize, which must be used for research or other academic purposes.

In the early career category, the awards were made as follows:

Basic Sciences:

Malika Davids for her article “Regulatory T Cells Subvert Mycobacterial Containment in Patients Failing Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment” which appeared in the American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine (198(1):104-16).

Read the article here

Public Health and Rehabilitation Sciences:

Tamsin Phillips for her article “Linkage to care, mobility and retention of HIV-positive postpartum women in antiretroviral therapy services in South Africa” which appeared in the Journal of the International AIDS Society (21(S4): e25114).

Read the article here

In the postgraduate category, the awards were made as follows:

Basic Sciences:

Melissa Blumenthal for her article “EPHA2 sequence variants are associated with susceptibility to Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and Kaposi’s sarcoma prevalence in HIV-infected patients” which appeared in Cancer epidemiology (56:133-139).

Read the article here

Clinical Sciences:

Tunde Olayanju for his article “Long-term bedaquiline- related treatment outcomes in patients with extensively drug resistance tuberculosis from South Africa” which appeared in the European Respiratory Journal (51(5):1800544)

Read the article here

Public Health and Rehabilitation Sciences:

Emma Kalk for her article “Neonatal and infant diagnostic HIV‐PCR uptake and associations during three sequential policy periods in Cape Town, South Africa: a longitudinal analysis” which appeared in the Journal of the International AIDS Society (21(11):e25212)

Read the article here

Prize winners were recently invited to the Deanery to receive their certificates from the Deputy Dean:  Research, Professor Ambroise Wonkam.