Deshanta Naicker is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. She completed her undergraduate degree in BSc LES stream (Microbiology and Biochemistry) with Dean’s commendation, her Honours degree (Medical Microbiology) Cum Laude, and thereafter her Master in Medical Sciences (Medicine) at UKZN. Deshanta is a member of the Golden Key Honours Society. Deshanta won first prize in the College of Health Sciences Symposium in 2018 at UKZN. She presented her Master’s work at the 33rd IUSTI-Europe Congress in Estonia and 8^th FIDSSA Congress in Johannesburg 2019. She has published her first journal article pertaining to bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women. Deshanta was also featured in the Durban North News for International Women in Science Day. She has done a research internship for 6 months at the University of Konstanz for her Ph.D. in 2021. Her research interest focuses on Sexually Transmitted Infectious.

Kayla Pillay scientific journey has led her to the field of infectious diseases, with special focus on sexually transmitted infections. She is currently a PhDMD (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine) candidate, with a background in Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Medical Science from UNIZULU and UKZN, respectively. She is passionate about contributing towards building a better future using the scientific platform.

Kehinde C Mofolorunsho is an academic and a PhD (Medicine) candidate at UKZN. Kehinde’s research interests lie in all aspects of infectious diseases including bacterial STIs among key populations. His doctoral research focuses on chlamydia and gonorrhoea infections, and urobiome of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in South Africa. Kehinde graduated in Microbiology from the Department of Microbiology at Kogi State University in 2005. He went on to join the Faculty of Public Health at the University of Ibadan as a Master’s student and completed his MSc in Epidemiology in 2008.  He has authored and co-authored articles in refereed journals.

Ntombizethu Msomi is a south African born, she holds a master’s degree in microbiology (Merit) obtained from the University of Zululand and is currently finishing her PHD in Medicine in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her undergraduate studies were on Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Microbiology (BSc BM) majoring in Biochemistry and Microbiology. The current presentation is on the work done in her PHD Lack of association between unhealthy vaginal pH and bacterial vaginosis positive status.

Chanda Siddoo-Atwal, completed her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of London. Her Ph.D. was taken in Applied Sciences from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and she did a Post-doctoral fellowship in the Biochemistry Department at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Cancer is her subject of specialization and started with research on Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) patients genetically prone to lymphomas. Since then, she has focussed mainly on mechanisms of carcinogenesis in various models. She is the President and Primary Biochemist of Moondust Cosmetics Ltd. (moondustcosmetics.com) and her research activity includes the formulation of a novel sunscreen to combat apoptotic sunburn that has been associated with ultraviolet radiation-induced skin cancer. She has been invited to present her research papers at conferences world-wide and is the author of a recent book called, “Apoptosis: A Key Trigger Mechanism for Cancer” published by Libromed. She has received a Drishti Award in recognition of her scientific contribution.

Abhijit Biswas: Graduating from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, as a Silver-medallist, he obtained Diploma in Homeopathy from British Institute of Homeopathy, getting 90% marks. He participated in an international-conference on GDV (Gas-Discharge-Visualization) diagnostic-device, conducted by Prof. Korotkov of St. Petersburg Federal Research University of ITMO (Informational-technologies, mechanics and optics), Russia, in 2008. This helped him to adopt this sophisticated diagnostic-device during more than one-and-a-half decade long work for the development of “Evolved-Homeopathy” for Health promotion, which rests on the foundation of the principle of “Advanced-Homeopathy” developed over a few generations by Dr. P. Banerji, et al, of PBHRF (Prasanta-Banerji-Homeopathic-Research-Foundation), Calcutta. In this connection, he published in peer-reviewed international-journals the papers listed in the list of References. He has developed the Method of Comprehensive Digital Medicine that Leads to Health Promotion by Curing Diseases of Various Organs, as well as of Immune (that improves immunity), Endocrine and Nervous Systems of Human body.

Lordy Gabriel Molisho Growing up in DR Congo (Kinshasa), a country subject to a variety of endemic diseases such as malaria, cholera, typhoid fever and others, a career in medicine was his first interest, at a young age, to alleviate people’s pains. However, his years in secondary school provided him with a better understanding of the difference between scientific careers. That is where his interest shifted from medicine to biotechnology because providing impactful solutions using his knowledge, his experience, and his creativity could be guaranteed. Moving from DR Congo to South Africa made him realize the necessity of providing African solutions to African problems since African countries typically face similar issues. During his undergraduate years, his research interest was in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). During those undergraduate, some awards and recognitions were obtained such as the 2018 UJ Faculty of Science Top Achiever Award, 2021 UJenius student, 2018 and 2022 UJ Congolese society top performing student. Going onto his postgraduate studies, computational biology became his next field of interest leading me to pursue a BSc. He Honours Biochemistry project in computational biology with a core focus on proteomics. Nowadays, his scientific interest revolves around integrating in-silico and in-vitro studies in molecular biology projects and developing improved, fast, and reliable diagnostic tools using nanoparticles. It is factual that the influence of his family, his environment and his personal experiences have shaped his scientific interests.