My name is Louis-Stéphane (IV) Le Clercq and I am a South African national of French-Italian heritage. My interest in a career in the Biological Sciences was peeked when my high school biology teacher recommended I enter the Mittal Science Olympiad and placed in the top 50 nationally. I started my formal education with a Bachelors of Science (B.Sc.) from the University of Pretoria, after which I completed a B.Sc. Honours from which I graduated cum laude, received academic honorary colours, and was invited to join the Golden Key Honours Society. During this degree I also completed several short courses including training on chemical grades and laboratory safety, good laboratory practice (GLP) and good clinical practice (GCP). My main supervisor was Prof. Duncan Cromarty for a "mini-dissertation" on measuring transcription factor activation and nuclear translocation in macrophage-like cultured cells, for which I presented my results at Faculty Day.
This was followed by a research based Masters of Science (M.Sc.) as further postgraduate education under the supervision of Dr. Sheila Bowyer and Prof. Sim Mayaphi, on a project that focused on the full genome PCR amplification and mass and parallel sequencing (NGS) of viral meta-populations in chronic infections. This project was funded through grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and Poliomyelitis Research Fund (PRF). During this degree I also completed additional courses in phylogenetics, bioinformatics, and laboratory automation. I presented on my research between 2012-2014 at the annual Faculty Day of the University of Pretoria. Following my masters, I completed a year long internship/stage by the DST-NRF at the National Zoological Gardens, SANBI. This period provided significant exposure to areas such as conservation genetics, zoology, and animal science, including a workshop on population genetics and the NZG Research Symposium in 2018.
I recently completed thesis research towards a Ph.D. degree in Genetics at the University of the Free State (UFS), with my main supervisor Dr. Desiré Dalton, in collaboration with Prof. Paul Grobler and Prof. Antoinette Kotzé (SANBI). My project focused on molecular clocks and avian migration models and biological clocks such as methylation and telomere attrition as age markers for wildlife. For the avian migration component, I used short range PCR and fragment analyses to study polymorphisms in circadian clock genes in two bird species in relation to geographic distribution and general population structure. For the second component, I designed a new assay using methylation patterns in five genes, quantified by bisulfite sequencing through mass-array fragmentation analyses, to model and empirically determine age in a carnivore. This study was funded by grants from the NRF and a core grant from SANBI. I presented on my PhD research at the SASBi-SC/SAGS Student Symposium in 2021 in addition to representing the Department of Genetics at the faculty rounds of the 3-Minute Thesis competition. During my time at UFS I also participated in the "UFS Diamond League" program that focuses on helping graduates be career ready though providing added training on the writing of cover letters and CVs, tips for job searches and interviews, and assistance in creating and improving your LinkedIn profile. Participation in these activities were graded and I placed in the top 15 among institution wide participants.
I am presently registered with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) as a Candidate Scientist in Molecular Biology.