Dr Melissa-Rose Abrahams

Senior Lecturer

Affiliations

  1. Research Fellow, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine
  2. Honorary Research Associate, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Key Expertise

HIV, Viral Evolution, HIV Cure

Main Research Focus

Melissa-Rose's research focuses on characterising the HIV latent reservoir, specifically in African women, to inform strategies to reduce or eliminate this barrier to a cure. This work involves HIV reservoir sizing and sequencing in individuals on antiretroviral treatment (ART) using quantitative PCR, next-generation sequencing and phylogenetics

Most Significant Paper Authored in 2024

HIV latency potential may be influenced by intra-subtype genetic differences in the viral long-terminal repeat.

Doolabh DS, Selhorst P, Williamson C, Chopera D, Abrahams M-R. (2024).

This study showed, for the first time, that the genetic sequence of the HIV promoter element (the long-terminal repeat) is linked to the extent to which viral latency is established shortly after infection in an in vitro latency model. This was shown using a panel of pseudoviruses harbouring the long-terminal repeats of transmitted virus from 11 women living with HIV from the CAPRISA 002 cohort, Kwa-Zulu Natal.