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Thumbi Ndung’u

Director for basic and translational science, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)
Professor Thumbi Ndung'u is an eminent HIV scientist who has made important contributions in the field of HIV vaccine and pathogenesis research. His research programme at AHRI is focussed on understanding how HIV and TB persist and replicate in the face of a hostile host immune system – with the goal of aiding the design of a safe, affordable and effective HIV-1 vaccine or effective immune-based therapies. Thumbi has a special interest in capacity building for biomedical research in Africa, primarily through the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE) programme, based at AHRI. He is a Max Planck Society Group Leader and holds a professorship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

He is interested in understanding antiviral immune mechanisms and viral adaptation in HIV-1 subtype C infection as a pathway to vaccine development. His work has focussed on understudied populations and viral strains in resource-limited, high burden settings where knowledge of the role of antiviral immune responses, viral strains and associated genetic factors is likely to yield the greatest impact in terms of biomedical interventions like vaccines. Thumbi’s early work addressed the lack of biological tools for HIV vaccine and pathogenesis research on HIV-1 subtype C, the predominant subtype globally and in southern Africa. He generated and characterised the first infectious molecular of HIV-1 subtype C from primary isolates, and constructed the first infectious subtype C envelope-derived simian-human immunodeficiency virus able to replicate in rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These tools were deposited in the NIH AIDS reagent program and remain available to researchers. The tools have facilitated in vitro and animal model studies of HIV-1 subtype C biology and vaccine development research.

Economy

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Politics

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