Professor Wendy Burgers

Deputy Director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine

Affiliations

  1. Full Member, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town (UCT).
  2. Professor, Division of Medical Virology, Department of Pathology, UCT
  3. Contributing investigator, the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa).
  4. Former EDCTP Senior Fellow. Former Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Key Expertise

Vaccine development, HIV, T cells, virology, clinical trials, preclinical immunogenicity, COVID-19

Main Research Focus

Wendy Burgers is a Professor and Deputy Director of the IDM at UCT. She is a viral immunologist, studying the human immune response to infections. She established and directs the Cellular Immunology Platform at UCT, a hub for clinical immunology research, vaccine evaluation (preclinical and clinical) and capacity building, for new and existing pathogens and future epidemics and pandemics. In the past her research 1 group has focused on understanding the cellular immune response to HIV and TB. She is currently engaged in research on the development of an HIV vaccine and understanding immunological mechanisms of control during interventions towards HIV cure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her group studied T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, addressing globally relevant and timely questions on T cell cross-reactivity to viral variants. Prof Burgers led the Cellular Immunity subgroup of the South African National COVID Variants Consortium, and was a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID vaccines. Her group is funded by the South African MRC, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, Gates Foundation and previously USAID. Wendy was awarded the South African MRC Silver Medal for outstanding contributions to science in 2024, and in 2023 was elected a Fellow of the University of Cape Town in recognition of exemplary scholarly work. Wendy leads a group of 20 postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, early and mid-career investigators and laboratory technicians. Her training and mentoring efforts are focused primarily on Black women, who remain severely underrepresented in laboratory science in South Africa. She also teaches infectious disease immunology to undergraduates at UCT.

Most Significant Paper Authored in 2024

Post-pandemic memory T cell response to SARSCoV-2 is durable, broadly targeted, and cross-reactive to the hypermutated BA.2.86 variant. Cell Host & Microbe

Nesamari, R., Omondi, M. A., Höft, M. A., Ngomti, A., Baguma, R., Nkayi, A. A., Besethi, A. S., Magugu, S. F. J., Mosala, P., Walters, A., Clark, G. M., Mennen, M., Skelem, S., Adriaanse, M., Grifoni, A., Sette, A., Keeton, R. S., Ntusi, N. A. B., Riou, C., & Burgers, W. A. (2024)

Ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolution has given rise to recombinant Omicron lineages that dominate globally (XBB.1), as well as the emergence of hypermutated variants (BA.2.86). In this context, durable and cross-reactive T cell immune memory is critical for continued protection against severe COVID-19. We examined T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 approximately 1.5 years since Omicron first emerged. We describe sustained CD4+ and CD8+ spike-specific T cell memory responses in healthcare workers in South Africa (n = 39) who were vaccinated and experienced at least one SARS-CoV-2 infection. Spike-specific T cells are highly cross-reactive with all Omicron variants tested, including BA.2.86. Abundant nucleocapsid and membrane-specific T cells are detectable in most participants. The bulk of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses have an early-differentiated phenotype, explaining their persistent nature. Overall, hybrid immunity leads to the accumulation of spike and non-spike T cells evident 3.5 years after the start of the pandemic, with preserved recognition of highly mutated SARS-CoV2 variants.