Professor Wendy Burgers
Division of Medical Virology
Professor, Division of Medical Virology, Department of Pathology; Member, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town; contributing investigator, the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa). Current EDCTP Senior Fellow. Former Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Wendy Burgers' research focuses on understanding cellular immunity to infectious pathogens. The work is characterising cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2 after infection and vaccination, and identifying immune defects in tuberculosis (TB) response during HIV co-infection. She directs the Clinical Cellular Immunology Platform, a hub for vaccine evaluation (T cell immunogenicity endpoints), clinical immunology research and capacity building, for new and existing pathogens and future epidemics and pandemics.
The work in the laboratory is funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Platform (EDCTP), Horizon Europe, CEPI, Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC), PRF and several commercial partnerships. This project is part of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP2) programme supported by the European Union (TMA2016SF-1535-CaTCH-22): https://publications.edctp.org/international-partnerships-against-infectious-diseases/wendy-burgers
Selected publications:
See publications and profile on Research Gate.
Contact details:
Room 3.36.1, Level 3, Entrance 4, Falmouth Building
Division of Medical Virology, Department of Pathology
Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine
UCT Faculty of Health Sciences,Observatory 7925
South Africa
Tel: +27 21 406 6090
Fax: +27 21 406 6682
Email: wendy.burgers@uct.ac.za
Alternate site: www.virology.uct.ac.za/vir/research/hivtb-immunology-pathogenesis-group
Group Members:
| Members | Position |
| Dr Roanne Keeton | Junior Research Fellow |
| Dr Marius Tincho | Post-doctoral scientist |
| Dr Paballo Mosala | Post-doctoral scientist |
| Rofhiwa Nesamari | PhD student |
| Ntombi Benede | PhD student |
| Akiko Suzuki | PhD student |
| Riyaadh Ahmed | PhD student |
| Valencia Chauke | MSc Student |
| Amkele Ngomti | Scientific Officer |
| Sohair Geyer | Scientific Officer |
| Avril Walters | Scientific Officer |
| Anathi Nkayi | Scientific Officer |
| Siyabulela Magugu | Scientific Officer |
| Asiphe Besethi | Scientific Officer |
| Richard Baguma | Scientific Officer (part-time) |
Collaborations:
International
Alex Sette, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, United States of America (USA)
John Wherry, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Antonio Bertoletti, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Lyle McKinnon, University of Manitoba, Canada
Prof Tom Harrison and Rachel Wake, St George’s University of London, United Kingdom
Local
Ntobeko Ntusi, Dept of Medicine, UCT
Catherine Riou, IDM and Division of Medical Virology, UCT
Carolyn Williamson, IDM and Division of Medical Virology, UCT
Linda-Gail Bekker, Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, UCT
Robert Wilkinson, IDM and CIDRI-Africa, UCT
Glenda Gray, SA MRC
Penny Moore, The National Institute For Communicable Diseases of South Africa
Alex Sigal, Africa Health Research Institute
Al Leslie, Africa Health Research Institute
Lee Fairlie, University of Witwatersrand
Nigel Garrett, CAPRISA, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Salim Abdool Karim, CAPRISA, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Gavin Churchyard, Aurum Institute