Jessica Anne Harris
Jessica Harris is studying towards a master’s degree in chemistry at Rhodes University. She completed her honours degree in 2014 with a first-class pass and a score of 83% for chemistry.
Her interests are medicinal chemistry and nanotechnology. Harris’s research project involves the development of dyes for photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment of cancer. PDT is a non-invasive treatment with fewer side effects than conventional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which damage both healthy and diseased cells. Dye is injected into the bloodstream, and is then activated by shining a laser light at the tumour site. The excited dye transfers energy to oxygen present in the tissue, producing highly reactive singlet oxygen, which results in cell death.
In December 2015, Harris paid a research visit to Nanjing University, China, where she was introduced to methods used to produce dyes for PDT. In June 2016, she undertook another research visit to the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at University College London, where she gained invaluable experience working with cancer cell cultures.
Harris has two co-authored papers for peer-reviewed journals.