Mr. Milton Tshidiso Mogotsi is a Ph.D. candidate in Medical Virology at UFS, under the supervision of Prof. Martin Nyaga. His research seeks to establish the origin of early life virome in the gut of infant cohorts and determine the diversity and dynamics of these viral populations using NGS. He obtained his M.Sc. in Microbiology (Cum Laude) at UFS in 2019, in which he demonstrated the application of viral metagenomics in characterizing viruses that colonize the gastrointestinal tract of infants and described the enteric viral profiles, thereof. He has disseminated his research findings in local and international forums like the 12th African Rotavirus Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa (2019), and the 13th International dsRNA Virus Symposium in Houffalize, Belgium (2018).

Mr. Mogotsi joined the UFS-NGS Unit in 2016 as an NRF intern, working as a laboratory assistant. Over the years he has gained experience in molecular biology techniques applied for NGS workflows and bioinformatics. He is currently the NGS wet-lab coordinator in the Unit, assisting with planning and performing laboratory experiments, and ensuring proper usage and maintenance of instrumentation. He is also actively involved in keeping the lab in pace with state of the art labs, in terms of protocols, technique optimization and equipment utilization, while also providing on-site orientation and training to arriving students, interns and visiting students.

As a research assistant, Mr. Mogotsi is involved in  a wide range of enteric whole genome sequencing, 16S rRNA/ITS metagenomics  and more recently COVID-19 sample processing and generating data for whole genome SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the Free State Province, as part of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA).