'Makhotso Lekhooa

Makhotso Lekhooa is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and the study director of client-led preclinical toxicity studies in rodents at the Preclinical Drug Development Platform (PCDDP) of the North-West University.

She holds a PhD (Pharmacology; 2015), M.Med.Sc (Pharmacology; 2010), Med.Sc. Honours (Physiology; 2007), B.Med.Sc. Honours (Pharmacology; 2006) and B.Sc. (Genetics; 2004) from the University of the Free state.

She is an emerging researcher, with a multi-disciplinary approach to translating traditional medicines ethnobotanical reports into validated scientific data using ethnopharmacology framework. The techniques include documentation, chromatography, in vitro analysis, in silico predictions and mechanism of action confirmation using rodent models. This work predominately includes evaluating psychoactive plants for anti-depressant potential and neuroinflammation modulation and contribute to decreasing the incidence of mental health in Low- and Middle- income countries. Additionally validating indigenous plants and/or foods as functional foods or complementary therapies to contribute to improved management outcomes of Depression, reproductive health, contraception and Malaria in the global South. She is an editor for South African Journal of Botany. She is an EXCO member of the South African society of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and a member of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology