Agri Kultuur January / January 2018 | Page 41

Botrytis cinerea Alternaria brassicicola Penicillium expansum Monilinia fructigena Rhizopus stolonifer Aspergillus sclerotiorum There is a clear absence of fungal growth around wells (1 to 3) containing anti-fungal lipopeptides (ie. iturin and fengycin) in crude form. Fungi grew around, towards and over the control well (“C”) containing water. Dr Vivek Rangarajan, post-doctoral researcher. Working with her on the two-year study (also funded by the PHI Programme and Hortgro Science) was a uniquely competent, multi-disciplinary team of specialists with expertise in the fields of chemical engineering, biochemistry and microbiology. They were Dr Vivek Rangarajan and two post-graduate students, Sebenzile Mazibuko and Willem Herbst. “Our research focused on optimising the biological production and purification of AWARD WINNING At the 18th International Conference on Bioprocess Systems Engineering held in November 2016, Dr Vivek Rangarajan’s paper on the purification of lipopeptides won the best presentation award. Sebenzile Mazibuko won the best poster award at the 2016 PHI Programme Symposium. AgriKultuur |AgriCulture 41