Professor Carolyn Williamson
Affiliations
- Full Member, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine
- Member of the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa)
Research Associate of the Centre for AIDS Research in South Africa (CAPRISA Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town
Key Expertise Key Expertise
HIV Prevention
Main Research Focus
Carolyn Williamson is the Head of the Division of Medical Virology at the University of Cape Town, with a joint appointment at the National Health Laboratory Service. She leads the HIV Diversity and Pathogenesis Group, which focuses on HIV vaccine development and prevention science.
Her research investigates viral evolution and host–virus interactions, with a primary focus on HIV and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2. In HIV, her work advances understanding of the molecular mechanisms of transmission and the viral and host factors influencing susceptibility to infection. She also studies viral traits that shape the development of neutralizing antibody responses over the course of infection.
Carolyn has contributed extensively to national and international HIV prevention efforts, including studies characterizing HIV-1 breakthrough infections from large-scale vaccine and antibody-mediated prevention trials. These studies aim to inform HIV vaccine design. In SARS-CoV-2 research, she is a member of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) and leads investigations into the intersection between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV infection.
Carolyn contributes to several national and international multi-centre collaborations, including the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), and the South Africa Medical Research Council Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships (MRC-SHIP).
Most Significant Paper Authored in 2024
Juraska, M., Bai, H., deCamp, A. C., Magaret, C. A., Li, L., Gillespie, K., Carpp, L. N., Giorgi, E. E., Ludwig, J., Molitor, C., Hudson, A., Williamson, B. D., Espy, N., Simpkins, B., Rudnicki, E., Shao, D.,…Gilbert, P.B*., Williamson,C*., Mullins, J. I.* (2024). *Equal contribution
Although the broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) VRC01 did not show statistically significant overall efficacy in preventing HIV-1 infection compared to placebo in the Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) trials, it effectively prevented infection by viruses sensitive to VRC01-mediated neutralization. We identified specific characteristics in HIV-1 Env amino acid sequences from AMP participants who acquired HIV-1 that were associated with VRC01 prevention efficacy. These Env sequence correlates can be applied to improve the ranking and selection of bnAb combinations against circulating HIV-1 strains in regions where future efficacy trials are planned.