Kekeletso Chele
PhD candidate

I am Kekeletso Chele, born and raised in Lesotho until commencement of my graduate studies at the University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, from where I have obtained all my qualifications including my most recent Masters degree in Biochemistry (cum laude). The main focus of my postgraduate research has been around plant metabolomics, where in my MSc research I focused on plant-environment interactions and generated a dissertation titled “Machine learning in plant metabolomics and the elucidation of the biochemistry underlying the effects of a nonmicrobial biostimulant on tomato plants under salt stress conditions.” My fascination by computational tools was sparked during the data analysis part of my MSc work, which led me to restricting my attention more into computational metabolomics for my PhD project titled “The use of computational metabolomics and metagenomics to discover novel bioactive molecules in South African medicinal plants” under the supervision of Dr Fidele Tugizimana (UJ), co-supervision of Prof Lizelle Piater (UJ) and Prof Justin van der Hooft (WUR). In this study, the medicinal plant of interest is the Southern African naturally occurring Lippia javanica. This plant has reportedly been used pharmacologically by both laymen and traditional healers against a wide range of highly fatal diseases including cancer, diabetes, malaria, and HIV. As a herbal tea, L. javanica has also been reported to have ethnomedicinal applications in colds, fever, bronchitis, diarrhoea, and asthma. Although it has been widely used traditionally in the central, eastern and southern Africa, there is need for more precise studies to characterize and discover new bioactive molecules of the Lippia javanica plant.

- Computational tools

- Natural products/medicinal plants

- Plant metabolomics