Watch her rise! Dr Dangarembizi wins Emerging Researcher at NSTF awards

Dr Rachael Dangarembizi (The Crypto Lab, UCT Neuroscience Institute & University of Cape Town Human Biology Dept) is one of only two winners in the 'Emerging Researcher' category at the National Science and Technology Forum award ceremony last night!!

This following some massive grant wins (Medical Research Council/UK Research and Innovation African Leaders Fellowship and Wellcome Trust).

Dr Dangarembizi's work focusses on the neuroimmune response to neglected fungal infections of the brain. She aims to gain an understanding of how brain cells interact with fungal pathogens, specifically Cryptococcal infection. She employs rodent models and organotypic brain slice cultures from clinical biospecimens to study the neuroinflammatory mechanisms underlying neurological damage in neurocryptococcosis. She is a member of the CMM AFRICA Medical Mycology Research Unit at UCT where they also study the biology of the fungal pathogens and how it changes when they encounter the host. Understanding host-pathogen interactions is critical for ultimately developing more effective treatment strategies for fungal neuroinfections. She has also been the chairperson of the Southern African Neuroscience Society since 2022.