Drs Bana and Spracklen win at the 2022 South African Rheumatology and Arthritis Association Congress

Dr Tasnim Bana was awarded Best Poster Presentation in adult rheumatology for her entry titled “Microarray immunoproteomics in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)”. She and co-authors including Prof. Ntobeko Ntusi, Prof. Jonathan Blackburn and Prof. Bridget Hodkinson described proteomic and autoantibody signatures in South African patients with SLE, with potential future implications on diagnosis, management and treatment of this condition.

Dr Timothy Spracklen received Best Oral Presentation in paediatric rheumatology for his talk “Characterising a unique 27-gene signature of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) in South African patients”. The MIS-C project, led by Dr Kate Webb, Prof. Chris Scott and Prof. Liesl Zühlke at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, aims to increase our understanding of this new post-COVID syndrome and how it occurs. This work described several novel gene expression findings in a local patient cohort that may point to new mechanisms of MIS-C pathogenesis.