Lekita Singh

Biopharming Research Unit
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Inga Hitzeroth

I completed a BSc degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I then went on to complete a BSc Honours and an MSc specializing in Microbiology. My MSc research focused on the crisis of antibiotic resistant bacteria found in the environment, and its impact on life forms. I thereafter received an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to complete an MSc (Bioinformatics, Biomathematics and Computational Biology) exchange program at the University of Bologna, Italy. After these years of research, I chose to gain industry experience and relocated to Cape Town where I fulfilled the role of Senior Manager at a manufacturing company. I was then offered full funding and am presently enrolled for a PhD within the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. My research is focused on utilizing Bioinformatics as a tool in new drug discovery and development by eliciting an immune response related to specific SARS-Cov-2 proteins.