Dr Ivy Tshilwane

is a senior researcher in the Vaccines and Diagnostics Development Programme at Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (ARC-OVR). She holds a PhD in veterinary tropical diseases from the University of Pretoria. Her PhD studies focused on developing new generation vaccines for the control of heartwater, which is a tick-borne disease of livestock. During her time at the ARC-OVR, she continued research on development of new generation vaccines for livestock diseases, which are required to replace expensive impractical vaccines that are not easily accessible to poor farming communities because of their need for cold chain storage and high cost of production.

Tshilwane is an aspiring veterinary immunologist who applies innovative technologies like nanotechnology, biotechnology, transcriptome sequencing to solve socio economic problems encountered by poor farming communities. Through this, she contributed significantly to research towards the development of an improved vaccine for heartwater, which resulted in an effective prototype DNA vaccine (provisional patent pending) that can protect sheep against heartwater infection. The prototype DNA vaccine developed for heartwater was designed in such a way that it will be cheap to produce and will not require cold chain storage, making it suitable for use by poor small-scale farmers as well.

Tshilwane has recently been awarded research funds from the National Research Foundation and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to further her research. She is also passionate about teaching and continues to invest in knowledge through mentorship of postdoctoral fellows and co-supervision of postgraduate students. She aspires to continue conducting multidisciplinary research that will not only create new knowledge and technologies but also contribute to improvement of the livelihoods of communities and food security.