Dr Rulan Griesel [Department of Medicine and Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa)]
Dr Ying Zhao [Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine and Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa)]
Host: Emer Prof Gary Maartens [Division of Clinical Pharmacology]
Dr Zhao is a Specialist Physician and Clinical Science PhD Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa. She completed her MBBCh at the University of the Witwatersrand. She specialized in Internal Medicine and obtained her FCP (SA) in 2019. She enrolled at the University of Cape Town as a Doctoral student in 2020. Her PhD focuses on addressing challenges with the transition to dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research interests centre around drug-resistant tuberculosis and antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings.
Dr Griesel is a Clinical Pharmacologist with a keen interest in HIV and TB. She is currently enrolled in a PhD in Clinical Pharmacology with the University of Cape Town. As part of her PhD, she has been lead-investigator on the RADIANT-TB trial which has assessed the need for supplemental dolutegravir dosing when prescribed with rifampicin-based antituberculosis therapy. Her PhD has also focussed on pharmacogenetic weight gain differences between dolutegravir and efavirenz and the concentration response relationship between dolutegravir and its adverse event profile (weight gain and neuropsychiatric) in an African population