Valerie Mizrahi (born 1958) is a South African

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interact ...

Biography

The daughter of Morris and Etty Mizrahi, she was born in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

and was educated there. Her family is a

Sephardi Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

family from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

.Valerie Mizrahi – woman scientist and mother
ESefarad

Career

She went on to earn a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in chemistry and mathematics and then a PhD in chemistry at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. From 1983 to 1986, she pursued post-doctoral studies at Pennsylvania State University. Mizrahi then worked in research and development for pharmaceutical company

Smith, Kline & French Smith, Kline & French (SKF) was an American pharmaceutical company. History In 1830, John K. Smith opened a drugstore in Philadelphia, and his younger brother, George, joined him in 1841 to form John K Smith & Co. In 1865, Mahlon Kline joined '' ...

. In 1989, she established as research unit at the South African Institute for Medical Research and

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, remaining there until 2010. Her research has been focused on the treatment of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, and drug resistance. In 2011, she became director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Mizrahi is director of a research unit of the

South African Medical Research Council The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) is a para-statal medical research organisation in South Africa. The current president is professor Glenda Gray. The South African Medical Research Council was established in 1969 to act as an indep ...

and leads the University of Cape Town branch of the Centre of Excellence in Biomedical TB Research. Mizrahi received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science in 2000. In 2006, she received the Gold Medal from the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for her contributions to the field and the Department of Science and Technology's Distinguished Woman Scientist Award. She is a fellow of the

Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive ...

, a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

since 2009. She was named to the

Order of Mapungubwe The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa's highest honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the President of South Africa, for achievements in the international arena which have served South Africa's interests. The order ori ...

in 2007. From 2000 to 2010, she was an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; in 2012, she was named a Senior International Research Scholar for the Institute until 2017. In 2013, she was awarded the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...

's Christophe Mérieux Prize for her work in tuberculosis research. Mizrahi was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 2023.

Honours and awards

*2000: L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science *2007:

- Silver *2013: Christophe Mérieux Prize *2018:

Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award The Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award is awarded annually by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. It is considered the top award for research on the African continent. In Memory of Harry Oppenheimer The Award was created in 2001, in South Africa, by ...

Personal life

Valerie has two daughters, and her father is the honorary president of the Johannesburg Sephardic Hebrew Congregation. She grew up speaking Judeo-Spanish at home.

Publications

* ''Effects of Pyrazinamide on Fatty Acid Synthesis by Whole Mycobacterial Cells and Purified Fatty Acid Synthase I''. Helena I. Boshoff, Valerie Mizrahi, Clifton E. Barry.

Journal of Bacteriology The ''Journal of Bacteriology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1916. It is published by the American Society for Microbiology and the editor in chief is George A. O'Toole (Dartmouth College). The journal is delayed ...

, 2002 * ''The impact of drug resistance on Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiology: what can we learn from rifampicin?''. Anastasia Koch, Valerie Mizrahi, Digby F Warner. Emerging Microbes & Infections, 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizrahi, Valerie 1958 births Living people Biochemists Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences South African microbiologists University of Cape Town alumni South African people of Greek-Jewish descent South African Jews L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates South African women scientists 21st-century women scientists Academic staff of the University of Cape Town 20th-century Sephardi Jews Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa