The Guardian - Lenine Liebenberg
Dr Lenine Liebenberg: Scientist at CAPRISA, Honorary Senior Lecturer at UKZN, Royal Society and AAS FLAIR Fellow, SANTHE Supervisor, AAS Affiliate.
Her Research: The greatest barrier to bacteria and viruses getting into your body is our own skin. It’s like the protective walls of a castle, with an army of defending antibodies, proteins, mucous and bacteria. Yup, bacteria – but they are good bacteria, for the most part, keeping the bad ones away.
The parts of your body that interact with the outside world fight the first battles against invading bacteria and viruses – your eyes, the inside of your nose, your mouth, your lungs, your gut, and other parts. These mucosal sites are active guardians against nfection. Lenine studies these critically important barriers: how they guard the body against infection, how the immune system interacts with mucosal cells, and how disruptions to the mucosal cell layers can allow viruses, bacteria, and fungi to infect us.
Her heroes: The supporters of women (especially mothers) in science. By helping us manage both family and career responsibilities, these partners, families, friends, communities or mentors invest in the contribution of women to scientific breakthroughs.
Her Top Tip: In life, and science, things don’t often work out as you would have liked. If we keep asking, “What have I learned from this?” even hard times can become opportunities to grow!
Rank, from highest to lowest the following characteristics in the order that you think are most important to succeed in science: Curiosity, creativity, hard work, communication
What other characteristics do you need? Resilience. Motivation. Flexibility.
Her scientific superpowers!
Cell hunter - mucosal samples are hard to get, and finding immune cells in these specimens is even harder. I enjoy isolating mucosal cells and using flow cytometry to identify rare immune cell types in these valuable specimens. I also use cutting-edge technologies to count mucosal proteins that cause cells to move, grow, kill, fix something or even to relax.
Her scientific strengths: “My strengths are in team work, leadership, communication, and connecting with people. I am constantly driven to learn and to improve other skills useful to scientists, such as grant writing, manuscript writing, student training, networking, public speaking and community engagement.”
Connect: Twitter @LenineJulie