Affiliation: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa

As a senior researcher at the Synthetic Biology and Precision Medicine Centre, funded by CSIR, Takundwa works to establish a cancer precision medicine platform. Her research interests are in applied molecular biology, genomics for health interventions, biotechnology, and genetic engineering. She aims to explore the molecular mechanisms in humans, microorganisms, and animals, focusing on human-microbe interactions, clinical treatment responses, and diagnostics. It involves studying metabolite pathways for response and adaptation, as well as genetics related to ancestry and personalized medicine.

She started in plant and food security before working in a clinical setting at the University of Cape Town, researching HLA markers in TB/HIV patients. She later joined Hamadi to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2021, became a quality control analyst at Roche, focusing on reagent manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry.

Her current work focuses on creating new approaches to repurpose cancer drugs. She graduated with a PhD from the University of Namibia in 2015 as its youngest graduate and a trailblazer for black women. With deep involvement in promoting STEM, she contributes to the African Cancer Leaders Institute, Black Women in Science, and various advisory panels. Currently, she spearheads the Cancer Precision Medicine research within the Synthetic Biology and Nanobiomachines group at the Future Production Chemicals cluster.