A PhD candidate at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP), University of the Witwatersrand, has been awarded the 2026 South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Institutional Clinician Researcher Development Programme Scholarship to advance research into targeted nanoparticle therapies for glioblastoma — one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of brain cancer.

Michael Gomes, who is simultaneously completing medical training and a PhD, is investigating innovative nanoscale drug delivery systems designed to overcome one of the biggest challenges in brain cancer treatment: the blood–brain barrier. This protective barrier prevents many chemotherapy drugs from reaching tumours at effective concentrations, contributing to poor survival outcomes. Most glioblastoma patients survive only 12 to 18 months after diagnosis.

Gomes’s research compares three nanoparticle platforms — liposomes, polymer-based particles, and polydopamine nanoparticles — to determine which most effectively delivers chemotherapy to brain tumours while limiting systemic toxicity. His work places particular emphasis on polydopamine nanoparticles, a relatively unexplored system inspired by dopamine, a molecule naturally present in the brain.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a predominant cause of global cancer-related mortality, largely due to the high incidence of systemic metastasis driven by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Although diagnostic and therapeutic advances have reduced mortality, approximately 20%–30% of patients are still diagnosed with metastatic disease, resulting in a poor 5-year survival rate of less than 15%. Understanding the genetic alterations underlying initiation, progression, and metastasis of CRC may help in the development of targeted therapies.

Driven by complex genetic and epigenetic dysregulation, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The limitations of current targeted therapies necessitate the identification of novel molecular targets to overcome challenges associated with established treatment regimens.

Breast cancer progression is increasingly recognized as being shaped not only by protein-coding oncogenes but also by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that regulate gene expression across multiple cellular compartments. While many lncRNAs have been linked to tumor growth, how their subcellular localization contributes to coordinated oncogenic signaling remains incompletely understood.