As a kid, Benedict Bapela developed a fascination with plants' healing properties. More recently, the South African pharmacologist has been using his expertise in medicinal plants with the Emory-South Africa Drug Discovery Training Program, founded by Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry Dennis Liotta.
Bapela says that with an estimated 24,000 native plant species, most of which have never been studied, South Africa may well be sitting on its own solutions.
Good chemistry: Reinventing drug discovery
Research at Emory | Office of Technology Transfer