Loretta Magagula (LM) gets featured in the Vintage series on the Association of Allan Gray Fellows (AG) website.

Ever wished you could genetically engineer stem cells? This week’s Vintage can do exactly that. She’s studied at Wits (BSc Biochemistry, Cell Biology & Physiology), UP (BSc (Hons) Biotechnology) and is currently completing her PhD in Medical Biochemistry at UCT after completing her MSc Clinical Science and Immunology also at UCT. Let’s get to know Loretta from the class of 2010.

AG: What do you do besides living and why do you do it?

LM: I’m the co-founder and CTO of a medical diagnostics start-up, Incitech, with other Allan Gray fellows which focusses making simple diagnostic solutions accessible to South African.

AG: Why?

LM: I have spent over a decade of my life in the industrial and academic scientific research. And while the intention of these disciplines is to expand knowledge and apply that knowledge to improve the health of mankind and cure diseases, I witnessed first-hand how that knowledge can get lost in bureaucracy and/or remain on the lab bench because the cost of getting that knowledge to the patient are too high. Ultimately, many scientific innovations, particularly in this part of the world, do not translate to the layman. This was a very disheartening realisation for me to say the least. So, my undertaking and commitment to Incitech ultimately stems from what is reflected in Incitech’s vision; creating simple diagnostic solutions for the layman to access knowledge about their own health.

AG: One of your publications is titled Microbial manipulation of host dark matter. This is quite a gripping title…the host dark matter part. For a non-science Fellow, how would you explain what this publication is about?

LM: Explaining this to a non-scientist in a short snippet will be rather difficult, so I will borrow an elegant explanation from one of my previous colleagues, Dr. Samantha Barichievy, published in our earlier joint publication on the same subject matter:

The English term ‘orchestrate’ is a verb that means ‘to arrange or direct the elements of a situation to produce a desired effect, especially surreptitiously’. The last part of the definition is intriguing, as it suggests the act of orchestration is clandestine or covert, perhaps even ‘hidden’. It follows then that while the conductor of an orchestra follows a score to guide all of the elements comprising a musical performance to a unified act, the piece is covertly directed according to the personal wishes of the conductor. In truth, conductors make adjustments all of which may not seem obvious to the orchestra members themselves. The ability to furtively direct the elements of a situation to produce a desired effect is also a hallmark of successful pathogenic infection……it is unsurprising that pathogens can, and do, manipulate elementary cellular and genomic functioning to their own advantage. It seems then that much like the conductor of an orchestra, pathogens use genomic tools akin to a conductor’s baton, to chisel the intracellular environment to their liking.”[1]