Meshandren is a scholar and member of the research team at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Health Law and Bioethics flagship. This flagship is involved in the examination of the legal and ethical issues surrounding gene editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 within the precision medicine context.
Meshandren’s interests lie at the intersection of law, medical innovation and strategy. He focuses on the Intellectual Property aspects of disruptive technologies and the implications on public health. He was recently awarded the National Innovation Doctoral bursary from the National Research Foundation and has been invited to contribute to the 14th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law to be held in Portugal 2021.
In his PhD, Meshandren aims to investigate how well the strategic potential of patenting is recognised and exploited by biotechnology entrepreneurs in South Africa. Within nascent biotech markets, there is great potential to use patents beyond their legal functions, as a means to appropriate strategic value from innovation, hence setting organisational boundaries that would make a company the market leader.
Academic Qualifications
LLB (UKZN)
LLM with distinction (Consumer, Contract, Corporate and Intellectual Property) (UKZN)
PhD candidate (UKZN)
Professional Experience
Legal content analysis and editing for Butterworths, LexisNexis
+5 years’ experience in industrial/mechanical design, diagnosis, implementation and management of an engineering SMME
