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Haematology research

Prof Resia Pretorius is a distinguished professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences
Image by: Stellenbosch University

Prof Resia Pretorius

Distinguished professor and Vice-dean: Research

+27 021 808 3143
Room 2005A, Mike de Vries

Dr Chantelle Venter
Image by: Stellenbosch University

Dr Chantelle Venter

Senior technical officer and collaborator

+27 21 808 3515
Room 2015, Mike de Vries
Overview of research

The research group’s focus is on: Blood coagulation, circulating inflammatory markers and how these play a role in inflammatory conditions like COVID-19, Long COVID, Type 2 diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriases and neuro-inflammatory conditions like Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

In this group, we strive to do impactful research, that will both add comprehensive and novel academic knowledge to the field of physiology, and to translate my research findings to result in a societal benefit, where the research innovation results in pioneering transformations to human health. The coherence of the group’s research is that biophysical and biochemical pathophysiology seen in erythrocytes, platelets and fibrin packaging, are a significant accompaniment to a variety of (inflammatory) diseases and the reason for hypercoagulability and aberrant rheology is in part due to circulating bacterial inflammagens. 

The technological innovation is to use viscoelastic, biomarker and structural readouts, to develop cost-effective nanobiosensors for early detection of disease risk.