Launch of Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa
To celebrate this prestigious new Centre, a mini-symposium was held on 26th April 2017 in the IDM's Wolfson Pavilion Lecture Theatre. The Centre was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Max Price, followed by a review by Professor Robert J Wilkinson during which he explained the rationale leading to the Strategic Award in 2008, as well as the achievements and awards of postgraduate scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships during the period of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Research initiative.
The Centre supports 3 platforms:
- Clinical - led by Professor Graeme Meintjes from the Department of Medicine and the IDM
- Biosafety Level III Laboratory – led by Professor Valerie Mizrahi, Director of the IDM
- Biomedical Data Integration – jointly led by Professors Nicola Mulder, Head of Computational Biology and Andrew Boulle from School of Public Health and Family Medicine
The additional co-applicants to the Wellcome Trust who also form the Steering Committee for the Centre are:
- Professor Bongani Mayosi – Dean Faculty of Health Sciences
- Professor Gary Maartens – Head of Clinical Pharmacology
- Professor Carolyn Williamson, Division of Medical Virology
- Professor Clifton Barry – Honorary Professor, UCT and of the NIH, USA
- Professor Mark Nicol – Head of Division, Medical Microbiology
- Associate Professor Tom Scriba – Deputy Director Immunology: SATVI
- Professor Frank Brombacher – Scientific Co-ordinator and Group Leader, ICGEB and based in the IDM
