31 August 2026 · Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha

Showing 19 of 19 abstracts

Session 1A — Human Landscapes

Phylogenetic age is associated with mitochondrial heteroplasmy in African and diaspora populations

Dayna Adrienne Croock*, Elouise Kroon, Devon Allies, André G. Loxton, Marlo Möller, Caitlin Uren, Desiree C. Petersen

Session 1B — Pathogen Landscapes

Transcriptomic characterisation of differentiation-driven priming of the interferon-α response in THP-1 macrophages

Boithuso Phale*, Prumohdya D. Muamba, Vanessa Meyer, Nikki L. Gentle

Session 1A — Human Landscapes

CCR5 regulatory variants and novel loci associated with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection in Sub-Saharan African populations

Isabel du Randt* and co-authors (NORA / Sydney Brenner Institute consortium)

Session 1A — Human Landscapes

Sex-specific gene expression signatures as biomarkers in predicting tuberculosis relapse

Bongani Mnyandli*, Anandi Bierman, Gerhard Walzl

Session 1B — Pathogen Landscapes

Characterisation of the subcellular localisation of African horse sickness virus non-structural protein NS5

Nipho Mtambo*, Eshchar Mizrachi, Vida van Staden

Session 1B — Pathogen Landscapes

Genetic diversity of Ehrlichia ruminantium based on multilocus sequence typing of isolates from indigenous goats and Amblyomma hebraeum ticks

Xolile Nuse*, H.C. Steyn, M.A. Van Der Nest, K. Hadebe, F.C. Muchadeyi, E.F. Dzomba

Session 2A — Computation Landscapes

Graph neural network-based discovery of miRNA-mRNA regulatory interactions in breast cancer

Nothando Gama*, Hocine Bendou

Session 2A — Computation Landscapes

Reconstructing cervical cancer tumour microenvironment states from DNA methylation profiles using a machine learning framework

Saltiel Hamese*, Mutsa Takundwa, Earl Prinsloo, Deepak Balaji Thimiri Govinda Raj

Session 2B — Ecological Landscapes

Surveillance and monitoring of antimicrobial-resistant human pathogenic and zoonotic bacteria in the Ngamiland and Okavango Delta

Patience Motshosi*, Kabo Baruti

Session 2B — Ecological Landscapes

Temporal dynamics of the gut microbiome during smoltification in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Badrodin M*, Difford G, Rhode C

Session 2B — Ecological Landscapes

Unravelling the elusive mating strategy of Dematophora necatrix: a combined genomic and physiological approach

Annabel Norval*, Markus Wilken, Noëlani van den Berg

Session 3 — Flash talks

Advancing avian genomics: a de novo assembly pipeline for a high-quality Southern Bald Ibis (Geronticus calvus) reference genome

Ashley Mortimer*, Anri van Wyk, Arrie Klopper, Paulette Bloomer

Session 3 — Flash talks

Does multi-task supervision teach a classifier where to look? A quantitative attention-localization study in brain tumor MRI

Tisetso Letuka*, Amukelani Mtshabi

Session 3 — Flash talks

The role of the gut microbiome in inflammation and multimorbidity in African populations: evidence from AWI-Gen

Aaron Y. Berkman*, Luicer A. Olubayo, Scott Hazelhurst

Session 3 — Flash talks

Impact of reference genome, alignment strategy, and quantification method on locus-specific HERV detection during monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation

Tebogo Phago*, Nikki Gentle, Vanessa Meyer

Session 3 — Flash talks

Integrated phenotypic profiling and therapeutic target prioritization of clinical MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa with biofilm-driven persistence

Sinethemba Yakobi*, Nontuthuko Maningi

Session 3 — Flash talks

Benchmarking DNBSEQ-T7 sequencing performance using Genome in a Bottle reference genomes: impact of library preparation strategies

Maano Malima*, Ansia van Coller, Setshaba Taukobong, Samira Ghoor, Nganea Nangammbi, Enrico Roode, Martin Naicker, Victoria Cole, Brigitte Glanzmann, Craig Kinnear, Nadia Carstens

Session 2A — Computation Landscapes

DockVina: an automated molecular docking pipeline for high throughput virtual screening

Siphamandla Mnakekeli Dlamini

Session 2A — Computation Landscapes

Taxonomic binning of long-read DNA sequences by k-mer composition using decision tree classifiers

Bruhan Kyomuhendo