Wits Professor Yahya Choonara Elected to Controlled Release Society College of Fellows, Marking Global Recognition for African Drug Delivery Research
核心洞察
Professor Yahya Choonara (搜索), Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (搜索), has been elected to the Controlled Release Society (搜索) College of Fellows, an honor granted to fewer than 1% of CRS members annually.
Choonara is also the first pharmacist in South Africa to receive an NRF A-rating, placing him among just 134 A-rated researchers in a national community of approximately 18,000.
His work bridges pharmaceutical science with translational healthcare, spanning infectious diseases, cancer, neurotrauma, and targeted drug delivery, supported by 51 patents and over 427 peer-reviewed publications.
Professor Yahya Choonara (搜索), Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wits University (搜索) and Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (搜索) (WADDP), has been elected to the Controlled Release Society (搜索) (CRS) College of Fellows — the society's highest honor, granted to fewer than 1% of CRS members each year. The recognition places Choonara among an elite global cohort of scientists shaping the future of controlled release and drug delivery science.
"This is an honour I receive with deep gratitude to the mentors, colleagues, students and collaborators who have shaped this journey," said Choonara. "What makes this recognition especially meaningful is that it energises me to do even more in driving Africa's 21st Century therapeutics revolution led from South Africa."
The CRS, which has members in more than 50 countries, promotes research, education, and translation of delivery systems that improve human and animal health. Choonara's election underscores the growing influence of African institutions and researchers in advancing next-generation drug-delivery technologies.
A Landmark NRF A-Rating for Pharmaceutical Sciences
The CRS Fellowship adds to a series of groundbreaking achievements for Choonara, who recently became the first pharmacist in South Africa to receive an A-rating from the National Research Foundation (搜索) (NRF). An A-rating — the NRF's highest category of recognition — signifies that researchers are acknowledged by the overwhelming majority of international reviewers as leading scholars in their fields, based on the quality and international impact of their research over the preceding eight years.
The rating places Choonara among just 134 A-rated researchers in a national research community of approximately 18,000, meaning fewer than 1% of South Africa's researchers have achieved this status.
Bridging Fundamental Science and Translational Healthcare
Choonara's work sits at the intersection of pharmaceutical design, nano-engineering, and translational medicine. Under his leadership, WADDP has developed first-in-the-world drug-delivery technologies designed to carry medicines more precisely to where they are needed in the body, improving treatment effectiveness, reducing side effects, and making medicines easier for patients to use.
"Controlled release science sits at the intersection of pharmaceutics, biology, and patient need. I share this honour with other CRS Fellows, my students, collaborators, supporters and the WADDP team whose creativity and persistence continue to drive real-world impact," Choonara said.
The platform's research spans infectious diseases, neurotherapeutics, cancer, wound healing, neurotrauma, and hereditary and lifestyle-related conditions — all areas requiring targeted drug and bioactive delivery where existing treatments remain inadequate.
A Growing Portfolio of African-Led Innovation
Choonara holds Africa's largest pharmaceutical patent portfolio, comprising 51 patents with 38 granted internationally. He has published more than 427 scientific papers, which have attracted over 17,300 citations. Together, these outputs represent a substantial body of pharmaceutical knowledge and intellectual property generated in Africa.
His previous honors include election at the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), the African Academy of Sciences, and the National Science and Technology Forum, as well as the FIP Distinguished Pharmaceutical Science Award, the Olusegun Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery and Technological Innovation, and the South African Medical Research Council Gold Award. He also holds the FIP–UNESCO UNITWIN Chair for the African region, supporting pharmaceutical education, scientific collaboration, and capacity development across the continent.
He is also a Tier 1 South African NRF SARChI Chair in Nanomedicine and Advanced Drug Delivery, and has mentored dozens of early-career researchers and postgraduates while building research infrastructure and international collaborations that advance patient-centred therapies.
"Professor Choonara's election to the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society (搜索) is a proud moment for Wits and a valuable recognition of the quality and global relevance of drug delivery research being led from South Africa," said Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits University (搜索).