Rachael Dangarembizi
| Rachael Dangarembizi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Rachael Dangarembizi |
| Residence | South Africa |
| Education | Witwatersrand University and National University of Science and Technology |
| Occupation | Neuroscientist |
| Employer | University of Cape Town, Neuroscience Institute |
| Known for | Being a Neuroscientist |
| Family | Novidade, Ellen, Foliana |
Rachael Dangarembizi is a Zimbabwean Neuroscientist based in South Africa. She is currently employed by the University of Cape Town, Neuroscience Institute.[1]
Background
Rachael Dangarembizi grew up in Zimbabwe, she lost both her parents as a teenager and through sheer grit, hard work and luckily an abundance of intelligence managed to complete a PhD and is a researcher in physiology. Being the first born, she was the main breadwinner for her four siblings, though they had to lose one, and at the same time trying to also further her interests in education and science. When she got to university, at that time, the university had a bursary system for all Zimbabwean students, but unfortunately during her first year that bursary system was phased out because of economic hardships. She was faced with an uncertain future, but luckily there were companies that came forward and decided to identify the best students in disciplines they were interested in and because she was doing biochemistry; there were companies in industry that needed biochemists and they decided to fund her because she had a very good academic record.[2]
Education
She started her undergraduate studies in Zimbabwe at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. She trained as a biochemist, after that she got a scholarship to do a Master of Science and Medicine at Witwatersrand, South Africa. She graduated and continued to do a PhD with the Brain Function Research Group. She graduated with my PhD in 2018 and went back to Zimbabwe to work at the National University of Science and Technology as a neurophysiology lecturer. In 2019, she went to University of Cape Town, first as a post-doc in Jo Raimondo’s lab and now she is a member of staff.
Dr Joseph Raimondo works on an epilepsy model for neurosis to psychosis, one of the most debilitating neuro-infections that we have in Africa, which actually causes quite a lot of epilepsy and seizures. So, one of the central mechanisms that underlies that particular condition is neuro-inflammation and that’s how she came in because that’s her interest and that’s also her area of training in her PhD. She came in as a post-doctoral fellow in his lab and was working with his students, PhD and Masters, on projects related to the neuro-inflammatory mechanisms. Neuro-inflammation is the reaction of brain cells in an inflammatory fashion to injury. So that injury can be as a result of infection or it can be as a result of trauma.
