In this episode we are chatting about the genetic counseling field in South Africa! Joining us for this discussion are two guests from the University of Cape Town (UTC), current student, Samantha Bayley, and UCT-professor, Tina-Marié Wessels. Special thanks to our social media intern, Kajal Patel, for recommending Samantha and Tina for this episode!

Samantha Bayley is currently a second-year student in the MMedSc Genetic Counselling Program at the University of Cape Town. Originally from Johannesburg she moved to the Western Cape for her tertiary education. Samantha completed a BSc in Human Life Sciences with Psychology (2016-2018), BSc Honours in Human Genetics (2019) and MSc in Human Genetics (2020-2021), all at Stellenbosch University. Her honours and masters research focused on a rare condition called Mabry Syndrome, including identifying a novel deleterious variant in the gene PGAP3 and determining this variant to be a likely founder effect in the Xhosa population for Mabry Syndrome. This year Samantha will do a minor dissertation on 'Investigating the Opinions on Telephonic Advanced Maternal Age Genetic Counselling'. She created the @samthegc Instagram page to share her experience as a Genetic Counselling Student and raise awareness for the profession in Africa.

Dr. Tina-Marié Wessels is an associate professor in the genetic counseling program at the University of Cape Town, where she has worked since 2014! Prior to teaching at UTC, Tina worked as a genetic counselor at the National Health Laboratory Service and the Universtity of the Witwatersrand, where she received her MSc(Med) and PhD in genetic counseling.She conducted her PhD in association with the Health Communications Project and examined the communication aspects of the genetic counselling process in an antenatal multicultural context. Tina joined the Division of Human Genetics at UCT IN 2014 as senior lecturer in Genetic Counselling. Together with Prof Jacquie Greenberg, she runs the Masters programme in Genetic Counselling where she is involved in undergrad and postgraduate teaching. In addition to her academic role, she is involved in clinical service and counsels patients from Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

On This Episode We Discuss:

Genetic counseling in South Africa
Factors that limit expansion of the genetic counseling field in South Africa
How we can raise awareness in South African healthcare for genetic counselors and their services so that there is an increased amount of referrals
Paying for genetic counseling consults in South Africa
Relationships with patient advocacy organizations
Genetic counseling degree programs in South Africa and how to apply
Sam’s experience as a genetic counseling student (which she shares on her Instagram!)
Job requirements of being a genetic counselor in South Africa
Availability of genetic counseling positions and paid internships
The process to order genetic testing in South Africa
Public sector versus private sector
How they envision the field changing in the next five years

To learn more about genetic counseling in South Africa, check out this blog post that Kira referenced from when she worked at My Gene Counsel, it features genetic counselors from South Africa as Trailblazing genetic counselors! You can also follow Sam’s Instagram account @samthegc, to learn more about the day-to-day life of a genetic counseling student in South Africa!

Kira also mentioned a couple other episodes during the recording…

#117 Dr. Janina Jeff (In Those Genes Podcast) on African Genomes

#216 African American Ancestry with Nicka Smith

Shoutout to our Social Media Intern, Kajal Patel, for introducing us to Samantha Bayley and making this episode happen!

Stay tuned for the next new episode of DNA Today on February 3rd, 2023 where we are kicking off our rare disease awareness month celebrations by discussing Wilson’s disease with Naseem Amin of Orphalan! New episodes are released every Friday. In the meantime, you can binge over 220 other episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, streaming on the website, or any other podcast player by searching, “DNA Today”. Episodes since 2021 are also recorded with video which you can watch on our YouTube channel.

DNA Today is hosted and produced by Kira Dineen. Our social media lead is Corinne Merlino. Our video lead is Amanda Andreoli. Our Outreach Intern is Sanya Tinaikar. Our Social Media Intern is Kajal Patel. And our Graphic Designer Ashlyn Enokian.

See what else we are up to on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and our website, DNAToday.com. Questions/inquiries can be sent to info@DNAtoday.com.

We are looking forward to celebrating rare disease awareness month this February on DNA Today. Our first episode will be about Wilson’s disease. The CEO of Orphalan joins the show to provide a major update on treatment for those with the condition. A new FDA approved drug!Mark your calendar for February 3rd, that’s when this episode about Wilson’s disease will drop, it will be Episode #222. Get a head start on learning at orphalan.com. (Sponsored)

As a listener of DNA Today, you probably heard me talk about NIPT, non-invasive prenatal screening, that looks for extra or missing chromosome conditions during pregnancy. But did you know there is one that can also screen for recessive disorders (like cystic fibrosis) and fetal antigens? BillionToOne offers UNITY Screen, which does all this from one blood draw from a pregnant person. Visit unityscreen.com for more info. And stay tuned for our upcoming episodes with BillionToOne exploring non-invasive prenatal screening for recessive conditions and red blood cell fetal antigens (Sponsored)

If you’ve been listening to DNA Today for a while, you probably know I am also a full time prenatal genetic counselor. Between that job, this podcast, and being a producer/host of other podcasts, I am pretty busy! To keep my energy up and stay productive I drink a decent amount of coffee. The new coffee I’m drinking is from Four Sigmatic. I’m really picky about my coffee, it’s got to be bold, not watery. And I’ve been really happy with Four Sigmatic. Here’s the difference from other coffees, it includes mushrooms, which I know sounds bizarre. I will admit I was hesitant, but you get health benefits and don’t taste it. I like the immune system boost, as I often get sick in the winter months. So we teamed up with Four SIgmatic to get you 30% off using promo code “DNATODAY” redeem it at FourSigmatic.com, again that’s FourSigmatic.com using code “DNATODAY” for 30% off! And let me know if you like it too! (Sponsored)