Rae Smith

An image of the death cap, Amanita phalodies

The death cap, Amanita phalodies

The image shows a website screen shot from the preprint repository, Zenodo, for the prepint titled: Economics of African biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics for prosperity. Published Jan 19, 2026.

We hope to show policy-makers the potential that investing in Africa can achieve. It was a privilege to work on this paper! check out the preprint: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... and share your thoughts! #africa #economy #genomics

A shot from the UNISA Science campus

Back in the saddle for the new year

Proud to be part of a movement that is growing in Africa! African BioGenome Project is sequencing many genomes and providing training opportunities for African scientists interested in generating digital sequence information that will capture our species genetic diversity doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Thanks for the explanation and for your inputs I will definitely check out that video.

Some cool looking figures! What are you looking for this with one? The text is a bit small to see. This is some of the work that is coming out of our lab. The Revio that we are using is still under-optimised, so that maybe why we are not getting super long reads.

Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of Southern Africa Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) using PacBio HiFi and Omni-C sequencing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.690999v1

This is my first genome assembly project that is well on it's way to finalization. Grasping the requirements for generating high-quality genomes has been a tough road, but slowly gaining the confidence to put these out for the benefit of people looking to apply these for their own research.

Some of the work that is coming out of our lab. we are getting close to achieving telomere-level assemblies for important South African livestock species.

Seems like a tough ask. Most people don't think about the world we live in too deeply - they too preoccupied trying to stay alive. Having a shallow, yet internally-cohesive view on life after death certainly frees up mental space to see to their needs.

A circos plot generated through circilize R showing two genomes compared against one another.

I am definitely getting somewhere with these circos plots in Circlize (R)! It is always surprising how deep these packages go - all in the name of generating pretty figures for publication. #circilise #genomics #science

Now fully in the academic space, I strive to have our undergrad modules competitive and career-building. Today we are privileged to get inputs from industry and stakeholders (Current and past students and other Universities) on how to improve our modules. At #UNISA #LifeSciences - truly valuable.

First of the rains for our region, can't wait to start looking for mushrooms. #Joburg #mushrooms #SouthAfrica

Genome engineering in biodiversity conservation and restoration Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 18 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00065-6This Perspective argues for the use of genome engineering for restoring species genetic diversity and increase species resilience to environmental change. Genome engineering could be combined with traditional conservation approaches for more effective conservation initiatives.

New online! Genome engineering in biodiversity conservation and restoration

It is apparent that our small-holder farmers in South Africa are aging, mostly male and need support with tick-borne diseases. Happy to have contributed to my Colleague's investigation on these farmers knowledge towards her PhD.

#farming
#livestock
#cattle
#science
#SouthAfrica

rdcu.be/ewqw6

A group of brown female cattle, standing in a holding pen.

The other day, I got the opportunity to check out our university's herd of cattle to contribute to getting baseline information on the heart, checking out health, age, pregnancy status and more.

#cattle
#cows
#AnimalScience

A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries - Scientific Data Scientific Data - A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries

The 1st of our research group's genome assemblies has been published. For this sheep we used Hifiasm, BWA-MEM2 and YaHS for contig and scaffold assembly. Annotation was done using Tiberius as pare of the VGP pipline.

Turned out quite well if I should say so myself!

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

VOSViewer is pretty easy to use - I wonder how I can use this to gain new insights into the bibloverse?

📣 Upcoming Online Talk at Imperial College London: Discover Galaxy – From Analysis to FAIR Data Management

Learn how Galaxy supports research data analysis and FAIR data management in this online talk hosted by Imperial College London.

📍 Online
📅 10 July 2025
🔗 More info & registration: (1/2)

Everyday is another opportunity to refuse being stuck in tutorial hell.

The image displays the cover of the 4th Postgraduate Student symposium that is taking place on the 25th and 26th of June 2025

Looks like this event just keeps getting bigger and more interesting. A lot of work but happy to be a part of it. This year we've invited students and staff from some of our other local universities to participate.

A figure illustrating genome synteny between two genome assemblies, one that was generated by myself and one that was obtained from an online repository. Key feature, trying to resolve the issue of tangling at the centre.

Trying to figure out circilzeR to help make my efforts in genome assembly beautiful. - now to get organise chromosomes in a way that I can avoid the tangled mess in the middle...

Panel 1: character crying at a desk Text: this IS hard Panel 2: character is now drawing determinedly Text: but I can do it

Little gentle reminder to all the human creatives out there 💪

Grok == sad

I wonder what happened to all the anti-covid19 vaccine people? is it just the work of the algorithms or are they really quiet?

This is figure 1, which shows a summary of the systematic review dataset.

Genetic diversity has declined within two-thirds of more than 600 species over the past three decades, according to research published in Nature. The findings highlight the need for conservation efforts to prevent genetic diversity loss. https://go.nature.com/42EpVo5 🧪

When writing for research, we tend to refine our thoughts on complex ideas as they go on the page. I always go back to how Larry McEnerney puts it.

Some very useful insights. Great work!

Pilanesberg National Park & Game Reserve Discover Pilanesberg National Park Among Southern Africa’s fascinating game reserves, Pilanesberg National Park is possibly the most accessible. Situated in the ecologically rich transition zone betw...

I've stayed in SA all my life, I've never been to Kruger, I was recently at www.pilanesbergnationalpark.org which is right next to Sun city - they offer guided safaris and and we got right up against elephant, Rhino, zebra, wildebeest, might be worth considering.

Looks like we are almost at the R2mil mark in SA. People may have their reservations, but things are looking up for crypto.