For generations, medicinal plants have formed part of indigenous knowledge systems, with communities drawing on knowledge of plants and their properties for health and healing. At the intersection of this traditional knowledge and modern scientific innovation lies an emerging area of cancer research: combining plant-derived compounds with nanotechnology to investigate new approaches that could complement and advance existing therapies.

Today, science is providing new ways to investigate that potential, identify biologically active compounds and explore how they could be delivered more precisely in the body.

Driven by a passion for scientific innovation and improving human health, Relebohile Practicia Lefojane is contributing to this field through her doctoral research into nanomedicine-based approaches to breast cancer treatment.

Her dissertation, titled “Albumin Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, In Vitro and In Vivo Biological Activities in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer,” investigates how medicinal plant-derived compounds can be combined with advanced nanotechnology to explore novel therapeutic strategies.

Her research focuses on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer. Unlike some other breast cancer subtypes, TNBC lacks the major receptors targeted by several existing therapies, limiting targeted treatment options and highlighting the need for continued research into new approaches.

It is within this challenge that medicinal plants meet modern science. Relebohile’s study explores albumin-based nanoparticles as carriers for compounds derived from medicinal plants. These nanoparticles are designed to improve the delivery of therapeutic agents to cancer cells, potentially enhancing their effectiveness while reducing unwanted effects on healthy cells. Through the synthesis and characterisation of these nanoparticles, followed by in vitro and in vivo studies, her research evaluates their biological activity against TNBC and investigates how advanced drug-delivery technologies could enhance the potential application of plant-derived compounds.

By bringing indigenous knowledge, medicinal plants and modern science into conversation, Relebohile’s research connects natural products, pharmaceutical science and nanotechnology in the continuing search for more targeted and innovative approaches to breast cancer treatment.