Dr Relebohile Matthew Matobole

As a BSc and MSc biotechnology graduate with a strong molecular biology and research background, Dr Relebohile Matthew Matobole has published several peer reviewed articles, and presented his work internationally. Following his transition to health sciences for his PhD, he began conducting research on keloid scarring: a prevalent condition in pigmented populations. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town, he is currently focused on developing a novel treatment for this issue. His research aligns with his passion for translating scientific discoveries into real-world applications, improving patient outcomes and address a significant unmet medical problem.

Dr Matobole has developed a new combination therapy for treating keloid scars. Unlike typical scars, keloids do not naturally fade, and grow beyond the margin of the original wound, spreading to adjacent healthy skin. Keloid scarring is still poorly understood, leading to ill-defined treatment plans and a high rate of recurrence (with recurrences often becoming more aggressive). Dr Matobole's solution has identified differential biomarker expression patterns relative to normal skin, with computational models then used to identify key keloid biomarkers. Bioinformatics have since searched drug databases for medicine which can transform dysregulated biomarkers into normal skin phenotypes, with a combination of drugs being selected for treatment to optimise the final outcome.