After Prof Chrisna Gouws's PhD with a thesis titled “Tyrosinemia type I as a model for studying epigenetic events in the aetiology of metabolic disease associated hepatocarcinoma”, she wanted to broaden my field of knowledge and scope of research experience, and she commenced with a postdoctoral fellowship in the field of Pharmaceutics in the Centre of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences (PharmaCen™). Based on her extensive experience in culturing of mammalian cells and developing disease models, one of my objectives was to establish mammalian cell lines for in vitro investigations on drug absorption and biotransformation. She has played a major role in establishing top-class cell culture facilities in PharmaCen™ and developed the teaching material to train postgraduate students in mammalian cell culture techniques. Establishment of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems was identified as a strategic objective for PharmaCen™ to improve on current two-dimensional (2D) cell culture models for future research projects. She has visited the TCEL group at the University of Southern Denmark in 2013 to receive in-depth training in the practical knowledge regarding the culturing of 3D spheroid cultures. She has also strengthened the collaboration with this group, which led to our facility being identified by them as a testing site for a prototype drive unit developed by them for culturing of 3D spheroid cultures. A company, CelVivo ApS was then established, and they are currently a recognised training site for their 3D drive units.
Prof Gouws received the National Research Foundation research career advancement fellowship program award in 2014, which enabled me to establish a functional 3D spheroid cell culture system as a model for phytomedicine-drug interaction and toxicity studies. Her initial research concentrated on phytomedicine-drug interactions and pharmacokinetics, but this has expanded by developing novel mammalian cell cultures, specifically cell culture models based on 3D spheroid technology. Her current research activities focus on developing new models for applications in drug research, including traditional medicinal remedies and plant materials for cancer treatment, and their possible interaction with conventional medicines.
Based on her standing in the scientific community through publication of high impact scientific articles, Prof Gouws has been invited to review manuscripts for international scientific journals. She has been invited to write review articles on topics related to my research activities, several leading subject-specific conferences have invited me to speak (including as keynote and plenary speaker), a website "The Conversation: Africa" also invited me to write for them to disseminate our research to the public. She has also been interviewed for other publications for the general public as well as a radio interview for "The World," a radio program co-produced by the BBC in the United States. She was also the only person from Africa invited by the National Cancer Institute in the United States to be a speaker at a conference they presented in 2020, on traditional medicines for cancer treatment. She has also presented webinars as part of webinar series hosted by CelVivo ApS. Two of her postdoctoral research fellows have presented international webinars by Gibco as part of their "Cell Culture Heroes" series.
Prof Gouws is registered with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, and a member of the Organisation for Women in the Science for the Developing World, International Society for Ethnopharmacology, Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa, South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Toxicological Society of South Africa. She is also a founding member and steering committee chair of the Society for Advanced Cell Culture Modelling for Africa and will host the inaugural conference in 2022. She was also successful with an NRF National Equipment Program grant, for a ZEISS LSM 980 confocal microscope in 2021.
