Shareefa is a Specialist Scientist at the SAMRC’s Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform. In 2015, she earned a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at UCT’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and co-led the Psychiatric Neurogenetics Group of the Brain-Behaviour Unit. From 2017-2020, Shareefa served as a GINGER Fellow. She currently co-leads the Systems Biology working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She’s interested in how genetics interacts with environmental risk factors, such as psychological trauma, to affect the development of complex physical and mental health disorders. Shareefa is also interested in systems biology approaches, particularly multi-omic integration methods for complex disorders.
Being a GINGER fellow has been an incredibly valuable experience. I’ve learned so much and have had the immense privilege of connecting with fellow African scientists with similar research interests.