Angelique Diedericks

Angelique Diedericks is an Intern in Genetic Counselling at the University of Cape Town.

Whilst studying toward her BSc degree, she was invited to become a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society in 2002, which recognizes outstanding scholastic achievement and excellence. She completed her Honours degree in Behavioural Genetics with distinction in 2004 at the University of the Free State majoring in Genetics, Psychology and Physiology. Her dissertation covered the topic of Diabetes.  

In 2006, she started working at NHLS – Bloemfontein as a medical scientist in the Cytogenetics and Molecular laboratories. It is here that she received her HPCSA registration as Medical Biological Scientist for Independent Practice.

In 2009 she moved to Centurion where she worked for Ampath Genetics Laboratory as a Senior Specialist Scientist in the Cytogenetics laboratory.

In 2017 she embarked in a career in Genetic Counselling, following a lifelong dream. She obtained her MMedSc degree in 2020, graduating with distinction in her research component. Her dissertation was entitled “Parental Perspectives Regarding the Return of Genomic Findings in NeuroDevelopmental Disorders – A South African Study” and centred around the return of research results in the NeuroDev study, a large-scale, international collaborative study which aims to contribute to mapping the genetic variation amongst children with NDDs in Africa by performing genotyping and exome sequencing on children, aged 2 – 17 years old, with NDDs in SA and Kenya. Angelique’s supervisors included Associate Professor Jantina de Vries, Professor in Bioethics at the department of Medicine, University of Cape Town and PI of H3Africa and Associate Professor Kirsten Donald, Professor in paediatric neurology at the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the University of Cape Town, Deputy Director of UCT Neuroscience Institute and PI of the NeuroDev study.

Angelique currently resides in Cape Town and is expected to complete her Internship as a Genetic Counsellor in 2021.