The operational environment
Both nodes are actively involved in the sharing of knowledge amongst researchers within the CBTBR through lab meetings held at least weekly. Journal Club meetings, held weekly at both sites, also provide an opportunity to share broader-based scientific issues and ideas within the field of biological sciences. We also attend numerous local and international conferences, often as invited speakers, where we share our work with the international community. As stated earlier, we also have had numerous meetings with health authorities, such as W and E Cape Departments of Health, to share with them our findings and the implication of these. These are just some of the bodies we have met with. We have also been invited to advise international organisations, such as GATB and WHO.

Knowledge translation to stakeholder groups
CBTBR members were involved in numerous public awareness activities countrywide in 2009:

• Public awareness, public engagement, and publicity
• The ‘Festival of Gratitude’ community outreach event, Ravensmead, 29 September and 01 October.

The Bill & Melinda Gates funded Grand Challenges in Global Health project entitled ‘Biomarkers of Protection against TB in the context of HIV in Africa’ (aka GC6) was launched in 2005 with the aim of identifying immune and mycobacterial factors that may contribute to the high burden of TB in Africa. In addition to the discovery of biomarkers of protection and susceptibility to tuberculosis, the study aims to find new candidates for inclusion in novel TB vaccines. The CMCB team at Stellenbosch University is one of seven African groups that are partnering in this ambitious project. The CMCB team have enrolled over 1000 residents of Ravensmead, Uitsig, Adriaanse and Elsie’s River as participants in the ongoing multi-national GC6 study.

As a means of community outreach, research dissemination and study feedback, the ‘Festival of Gratitude’, was held in the Civic Centres of Adriaanse and Ravensmead on September 29th and October 1st 2009. The event was organized and carried out by SUN GC6 team members with the help of many others from the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The main aim of this outreach initiative was to ‘give back’ to the members of the community who had participated in the research and say thank you for their invaluable contributions in the advancement of the GC6 project. The two events also provided an important opportunity to provide basic education about TB (including multi-drug resistant TB) and HIV using a creative combination of music, drama and scientific discussion. The serious educational messages were punctuated with many light hearted moments and over the 2 days, 40 prize draw winners walked home with food hampers containing over R200 of essential groceries.

The play ‘Touched By TB’ which was presented as part of the outreach activities, was written, produced and directed by Cape Town based professional actor David Muller and was performed by students of the University of the Western Cape Centre for Performing Arts. Members of the community were given the opportunity to have their questions about TB, HIV and other public health issues answered by Prof Gerhard Walzl, a chest physician with expert knowledge on tuberculosis. These question and answer sessions were clearly appreciated by the community members and highly interactive. On both days attendees of the Festival were provided with refreshments including a healthy filled roll, fruit juice and fresh fruit. The play ‘Touched by TB’ will be taken to ScifestAfrica which will be held in Grahamstown in 2010. It is hoped that ‘Touched by TB’ will travel to many different parts of South Africa as a means of conveying the importance of visiting the clinic with first signs or symptoms of tuberculosis and also completion of treatment if tuberculosis is diagnosed. The ‘Festival of Gratitude’ was attended by around 800 residents of Tygerberg District as well as several members of the Department of Health, including Karen Jennings, the manager for TB, HIV and STIs for the City of Cape Town. The Festival of Gratitude was a highly successful project which was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.

• Prof. Warren gave a talk in 2009 on the Molecular Epidemiology of XDR-TB to health care professionals at 2 Military Hospital.
• Prof. Warren presented a lecture in the MBChB module on Infections and Clinical Immunology in 2009. Title: South African Molecular Epidemiological Data.
• Numerous radio, TV and newspaper interviews locally and abroad. Owing to extreme administrative burden, opportunistic interviews, no accurate records were kept.

Outreach activities
Prof Valerie Corfield has continued with the outreach activities that she has established over the last 12 years, and for which she has received support and encouragement from many different role players.  She is extensively involved in HIV awareness in schools and communities, using a workshop called “HIV comes to the Party”. In 2007, she developed a TB exhibit (“The Trouble with TB”), and in 2009, she developed an accompanying TB workshop. Recent new developments have been a workshop highlighting the neurophysiology of the drug Tik (methamphetamine), “TIK’s Tricks”; a 2-3 day workshop incorporating many aspects of Biotechnology, with an accompanying talk covering relevant ethical issues and careers in biotechnology; and further development of a skin exhibit, “The Skin you’re in”. She continues to present the popular “DNA Detective; what’s in your genes?” workshop, which examines genomics and forensic applications in DNA fingerprinting and “Enzyme Antics”, which introduces the role of enzymes in digestion and in biotechnology applications.

Each year Prof Corfield runs science workshops at the Grahamstown Science Festival (Scifest Africa), National Science Week, MTN Science Centre and other venues. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committees of Scifest Africa and the MTN Science Centre. During 2009, she has trained several scientists, postgraduate students and science centre staff facilitators to run outreach activities.

The highlight in 2009 was the award of a prestigious Wellcome Trust International Engagement WTIE grant to Prof Corfield (Principal awardee) in partnership with the MTN Sciencentre, Cape Town. The project entitled “Catalysing partnerships: the role of science centres as intermediaries between the public and scientists in engagement with biomedical sciences in South Africa”, plans to bring science centres and scientists together to make biomedical science issues more assessable to the general public. The first phase of the WTIE grant involved using “The Trouble with TB” exhibit and workshop, along with “HIV comes to the party”, “The DNA Detective” and “The Skin you’re in” activities to assess what interventions best engage target audiences (scholars, teachers, the general public). The next two phases, preparation of a “how-to-engage” manual and training workshops for scientists and facilitators at all national science centres are scheduled for 2010. In an exciting outcome of phase 1, David Muller (play write and science theatre performer), with Dr Gill Black of CBTBR, scripted and produced a play with student actors from the University of the Western Cape for the general public called “Touching TB”. This play has already been performed at community events and been critically evaluated by members of CBTBR.

An outline of the activities presented in 2009 is given below:

TB, HIV, DNA, TIK, ENZYME and BIOTECHNOLOGY WORKSHOPS and TB and SKIN EXHIBITS
During the course of 2009, the six workshops “The Trouble with TB”, “HIV comes to the party”, “The DNA Detective, what’s in your genes?”, “TIK’s Tricks”, “Enzyme Antics” and “Biotechnology” and exhibits “The Trouble with TB” and “The Skin you’re in” developed by Prof Corfield were presented at a number of venues across the country, not only by her, but also by others who have been trained in the past, or in the year of this report. The workshops in which she and/or members of CBTBR were involved are detailed below.

Activities in which Prof Corfield primarily involved

• 14 February short “Basic Biotechnology” workshop and talk “New wave Biotechnology” given to educators of the Dept of Education, West Coast region in Morreesburg, W Cape.
• 28 February HIV/AIDS awareness training given to peer educators at TSiBA (private tertiary education institute, Cape Town), using “HIV comes to the party”. Subsequently, peer educators themselves presented the workshop to learners from socio-economically-disadvantaged schools in Cape Town (25 April).
• 10 March Prof Corfield wrote fact sheet on DNA forensics to support Public Understanding of Biotechnology initiative (PUB) Media Round Table in Johannesburg
• 25-31 March SCIFEST Africa, Grahamstown. Exhibits “The trouble with TB” and “The Skin you’re in” were presented. As part of increasing involvement and training, Dr Lester Davids (UCT) and Dr Robea Ballo (UCT) helped develop and man the skin exhibit, and a postgraduate student from Rhodes University helped Prof Corfield man the TB exhibit. Workshops “The DNA Detective, what’s in your genes?” and “TIK’s tricks” were also presented daily. Two facilitators (who were both NRF Interns) from the Unizul Science Centre, Richard’s Bay were trained in interactive presentation skills at these workshops. The exhibitions and workshops received media attention; Prof Corfield was interviewed for the British radio programme “The Naked scientists” and discussed TB The TB and skin exhibits were filmed and aired on SABC’s children’s programmes “Hectic nine 9”; and “TIK’s Tricks” was filmed and presented on SABC’s “Knock knock“. An SABC radio interview was also aired on Prof Corfield’s research on inherited heart disease.
• 2 April “TIK’s Tricks” workshop and “New Wave Biotechnology” talk presented at University of Stellenbosch’s Maths and Science week.
• 29 and 30 April “TIK’s Tricks” workshop presented to primary school educators from socio-economicall-deprived schools at Primary Science Programme (PSP), Phillipi.
• 4 and 5 May Meeting with Prof Corfield and Mr Derek Fish (Director of Unizul Science Centre) to discuss further outreach collaborations with a biomedical focus (HIV and TB) and as part of WTIE awards that they each hold.
• 9 May “New wave biotechnology” talk to learners with leadership potential at MTN Sciencentre.
• 13-15 May Phase 1 of WTIE at MTN Sciecentre. “The Trouble with TB” exhibit and workshop, along with “HIV comes to the party”, “The DNA Detective” workshops and “The Skin you’re in” exhibit were presented over three days to learners and educators. An evening discussion was held on stem cell therapy for the general public. All interventions were evaluated by three independent evaluators and by questionnaires administered to participants. Results of data analysis will be used in phases 2 and 3. Many people were involved in this phase. From CBTBR, Mss Glenda Durrheim and Carmen Swanepoel and Dr Erika Truter were involved, as well as scientists and students from UCT. Two science centre facilitators who were NRF interns were trained in presenting workshops and exhibit. Ms Marina Joubert, professional science communicator and Mr david Muller (science theatre performer) also participated.
• 19 May Talk given at UCT Health Sciences to staff and students about the need for public engagement in biomedicine.
• 8-10 June Three day Biotechnology training workshop given to facilitators at MTN Gateway Science Centre, under auspices of PUB, as part of a programme to empower the facilitators to design an interactive biotechnology programme for school groups visiting the centre. Outcome will be evaluated in 2010.
• 12 June “Careers in Heath Care” talk given at University of Stellenbosch to learners from socio-economically-deprived schools.
• 24 June Training workshop for MTN Cape Town Sciencentre facilitators and Nina Holderness (UCT postgraduate student with interest in “outreach”) to enable them to give TB, HIV, DNA workshops.
• 30 June and 2 July “DNA detective: what’s in your genes?” and “The Trouble with TB “ given to primary school children from Kalkfontein attending winter holiday programme.
• 8 July Training workshop for MTN Cape Town Sciencentre facilitators and Nina Holderness to enable them to give TIK workshop.
• 13 and 14 July Agriculture Biotechnology training workshop for Free State Dept of Education Agricultural Sciences subject advisors, held in Bethlehem, Free State. Run by Prof Corfield and two senior Dept of Education advisors
• 3-9 August National Science Week (postponed from May due to presidential inauguration). TB exhibition and workshop, run by trained facilitators and postgraduates from CBTBR and UCT. Also HIV and DNA workshops and skin exhibit, run by trained facilitators and postgraduates from CMCB and scientists and postgraduate students from UCT. Interventions evaluated by Prof Corfield.
  The TB and Skin exhibits remain at the Sciencentre and are manned by trained science centre facilitators during school visits. The Skin exhibit also used by the Teaching Biology Programme (offshoot of the Africa Genome Education Institute).
• 4 August Seminar on “The genetics of human skin pigmentation” delivered at the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity (CCRRI), University of KZN.
• 12 and 13 August “Enzyme antics” workshop (with application in human digestion) presented to primary school educators from socio-economically-deprived schools at Primary Science Programme (PSP), Phillipi.
• 24-27 August 2x2 day Basic Biotechnology training workshops presented under auspices of PUB to educators from the Eastern Cape Dept of Education, held in Mount Frere and Mthatha, to facilitate attendance by educators from rural areas.
• 7-10 December Prof Corfield attended by invitation a WTIE award-holders 3 day workshop in Bangalore, India on the role of storytelling in public engagement.