Kuben Vather
Senior Manager: SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE (SANBS)

Kuben Vather is currently the Senior Manager: Operations Supply Chain and Logistics for the South African National Blood Transfusion Service (SANBS). Prior to this he was Senior Manager: Specialised Laboratory Services at SANBS where he lead the teams performing HLA testing and cryopreservation of peripheral stem & mononuclear cells.  He was also General Manager: Operations for the clinical trial laboratory division of the Wits Health Consortium, a division of the University of Witwatersrand. He has more than 27 years of experience within the blood transfusion, clinical trial laboratory and clinical pathology diagnostics fields.   Post his qualification in the field of Medical Technology, he developed extensive operational and strategic management experience within the healthcare industry also completing his MBA and Six Sigma qualifications.

SANDRA VENTER

DONOR RECOVERY AND AWARENESS MANAGER

BONE SA: Vitanova Tissue Bank

During the last 16 years she worked extensively with tissue donor families, the legal consent procedure and overseeing a national tissue procurement team, whilst focussing on professional relationships with key role players in the sector.  In 2011 she was awarded an international fellowship in eye banking by the Eye banking Association of America where her vision for tissue banks grew substantially and she became committed to push forward with the idea of a formal tissue banking association. She was a founder member and instrumental in establishing the South African Tissue Bank Association (SATiBA) during the period 2012 to 2014 and has subsequently served on the Executive Committee, up to 2021 where she now serve as President of SATiBA (www.satiba.org)

Her involvement as coordinator in the drafting of regulations for tissue banks, which were then promulgated in 2012, helped to develop her passion for “bringing people together” and a believe that collaboration is the only way to succeed in the South African context of tissue banks. She is also serving the healthcare industry as Secretary of the South African Transplant Society. (www.sats.org.za)

In 2020 she was appointed at the new tissue bank, founded by Bone SA, as Recovery and Awareness Manager.  She is passionate and committed in raising the awareness of tissue donation in South Africa and is influential in the establishment of Vitanova,  the state-of-the-art tissue bank in Cape Town.

Professor Melodie Labuschaigne

Professor Melodie Labuschaigne is Professor in Medical law and Ethics in the Department of Jurisprudence in the School of Law, University of South Africa. She is a former Director of the School of Law and Deputy Executive Dean of the College of Law at UNISA. She obtained the degrees BA, BA (Hons), MA and DLitt from the University of Pretoria, and the degrees LLB and LLD (in medical law) from the University of South Africa. She has published extensively on medico-legal issues; the legal regulation of stem cell research and human tissue, genomic and genetic research, gene editing, assisted reproduction and the National Health Insurance Bill, in local and international journals and has presented many local and international conference papers. She is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research from the University of SA, the Women in Research Leadership Award, and the Hugo de Groot Prize. She has been involved with the revision and drafting of health legislation for many years and is regularly approached to provide legal opinions on legal issues relating to medical law and ethics. During 2016-2018 she served on the Academy of Sciences of South Africa consensus panel on Human genetics and genomics in South Africa. She serves on several boards and is currently the legal member on the National Health Research Ethics Council, the chairperson of the Complaints and Queries sub-committee of the NHREC, and a member of the Bioethics Advisory Panel of the SAMRC. She chairs of the Genomics working group of the BAP of the SAMRC.

Dr Yvonne Holt
Medical Director: Netcells Biosciences

Dr Yvonne Holt is the Medical Director at Netcells Biosciences, a South African private stem cell and human tissue bank. Dr Holt graduated from Wits University as a medical doctor and has a diploma in Paediatrics and Transfusion Medicine. Netcells specialises in the long term storage of baby stem cells (umbilical cord blood and tissue stem cells), adult stem cells (peripheral blood and adipose tissue stem cells), Semen, Human heart valves, amniotic tissue membrane used in ophthalmic surgery and the production of umbilical cord blood serum eye drops.