Staff Reporter
SA prof’s work aimed at reducing global burden of morbidity and mortality
Professor Etheresia Pretorius’ war against inflammatory diseases has saved many lives and charted new ways of treating them. Pretorius has been honoured for her sterling work in her research which is primarily aimed at reducing the global burden of morbidity and mortality due to various inflammatory hematological as well as pathological clotting complications. Through her research work, she has created a vital mind-shift in the understanding of inflammation by developing new approaches to study the role of coagulation parameters in inflammatory diseases.
Pretorius has developed rapid diagnostic methods for these purposes, with innovative high impact journals, including papers in The Lancet, Blood Reviews, and several Nature publications like Nature Scientific Reports. She has authored 8 book chapters and numerous peer-reviewed conference papers.
Pretorius sits on the editorial boards of seven journals, is currently the associate editor of the Journal of Alzheimer Disease; and has been a regular reviewer of over 80 ISI journals. She also won the prestigious African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award in 2011; Women Scientist: Basic Science and Technology Award (2011). Pretorius is a full Professor of Physiology and the Head of the Department of Physiological Sciences, at Stellenbosch University. She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Pretoria.