Valerie Mizrahi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1958 |
| Citizenship | South African |
| Known for | Tuberculosis |
| Awards | L'Oréal-UNESCO Award, 2000 Order of Mapungubwe, 2007 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular biology |
Valerie Mizrahi FRS (born 1958) is a South African molecular biologist. [1]
The daughter of Morris and Etty Mizrahi, she was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and was educated there. Her family is a Sephardi Jewish family from the Greek island of Rhodes. [2]
She went on to earn a BSc in chemistry and mathematics and then a PhD in chemistry at the University of Cape Town. [3] From 1983 to 1986, she pursued post-doctoral studies at Pennsylvania State University. Mizrahi then worked in research and development for pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline & French. [1] In 1989, she established as research unit at the South African Institute for Medical Research and University of the Witwatersrand, remaining there until 2010. Her research has been focused on the treatment of tuberculosis, and drug resistance. [4] In 2011, she became director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. [5] Mizrahi is director of a research unit of the South African Medical Research Council and leads the University of Cape Town branch of the Centre of Excellence in Biomedical TB Research. [3]
Mizrahi received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science in 2000. In 2006, she received the Gold Medal from the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for her contributions to the field and the Department of Science and Technology's Distinguished Woman Scientist Award. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa [1] and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology since 2009. [6] She was named to the Order of Mapungubwe in 2007. From 2000 to 2010, she was an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; in 2012, she was named a Senior International Research Scholar for the Institute until 2017. [3] In 2013, she was awarded the Institut de France's Christophe Mérieux Prize for her work in tuberculosis research. [7] Mizrahi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023. [8]
Valerie has two daughters, and her father is the honorary president of the Johannesburg Sephardic Hebrew Congregation. She grew up speaking Judeo-Spanish at home. [2]
Bonnie Lynn Bassler is an American molecular biologist; the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University; and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She has researched cell-to-cell chemical communication in bacteria and discovered key insights into the mechanism by which bacteria communicate, known as quorum sensing. She has contributed to the idea that disruption of chemical signaling can be used as an antimicrobial therapy.
The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, created in 1998, aim to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress. The awards are a result of a partnership between the French company L'Oréal and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and carry a grant of $100,000 USD for each laureate. This award is also known as the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Awards.
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Quarraisha Abdool Karim is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and co-founder and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA. She is a Professor in Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Lalita Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the biological mechanism of tuberculosis. As of 2019 she serves as a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician. Her research is conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she serves as the Head of the Molecular Immunity Unit of the Department of Medicine embedded at the MRC LMB. Working with Stanley Falkow at Stanford, she developed the strategy of using Mycobacterium marinum infection as a model for tuberculosis. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Science, Nature, and Cell. In 2018 and 2019 Ramakrishnan coauthored two influential papers in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) arguing that the widely accepted estimates of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis—estimates used as a basis for allocation of research funds—are far too high. She is married to Mark Troll, a physical chemist.
Francine NtoumiPh.D., HDR, PvDz, FRCPedin is a Congolese parasitologist specializing in malaria. She was the first African person in charge of the secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (2006-2010). In recent years, she has become involved in research on other infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
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Kathryn "Kat" Elizabeth Holt is an Australian computational biologist specializing in infectious disease genomics. She is a professor at Monash University's Department of Infectious Diseases and a professor of Microbial Systems Genomics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Her current research focuses on investigating the evolution and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. In 2015, Holt received the L'Oréal-UNESCO International Rising Talent Award.
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