At last! UKZN professor's research helps discover the cause of hair loss
UKZN's Professor Ncoza Dlova has discovered a new gene that is a major cause of permanent hair loss among women of African descent. She chatted with Carol Ofori about the breakthrough.
Listen to Carol's interview with Professor Ncoza Dlova, or read the details under the podcast.
Professor Ncoza Dlova, Dean of UKZN’s School of Clinical Medicine and an internationally-renowned dermatologist, spoke to Carol Ofori about her recent historic medical discovery relating to hair loss among African women.
Dlova is the first African Dermatologist in KwaZulu-Natal and the 2nd African female dermatologist in South Africa, and has since trained and mentored about 30 dermatologists, 80% of which are women.
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She is a Professor, Chief Specialist, and Head of Dermatology at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), where she trained for both her undergraduate and postgraduate studies and was awarded her PhD in 2015.
According to a Press Release, Prof Dlova said this finding is a major breakthrough and had made history.
"This is probably the biggest breakthrough in South African Dermatology. This discovery is a first in the world, and it followed links to my earlier publication of 2013, in which I reported for the first time a familial association in a cluster of black South African families with Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA) and have been following the 15 families for 5 years, and 7 years later a gene has been identified. This has huge implications on early diagnosis, prevention and possible future targeted therapy of CCCA," she said.
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Listen to the podcast to find out more.