Q&A with Professor Wendy Burgers
Q: What motivated you to take on the role of Deputy Director at the IDM?
I took on the role of IDM Deputy Director because I share our Director, Digby Warner’s vision for the Institute, and I felt I could contribute to making the IDM a better place for all its members.
For me this means revitalising some key areas, such as providing more opportunities for Black and women researchers at all levels, building an innovation space for translating our research into real-world impact, fully embracing how AI can transform our work as biomedical scientists and capacitating our community in AI, plus providing an improved postgraduate training experience.
Hopefully by contributing to improving IDM’s support for all of our community, I can make a bigger impact beyond my existing research, teaching and leadership activities at UCT.
Q: What was a pivotal moment, a decision or opportunity that was decisive in shaping your career?
The COVID-19 pandemic really shaped my career in ways that I didn't plan or anticipate. Performing and leading COVID research has led to the most incredible opportunities and collaborations across the country and the world, which has changed the course of what work I do currently and who I do it with.
Q: What is your leadership philosophy?
“Lift as you rise”. You will know that this was Professor Bongani Mayosi's approach to leadership. His death affected me deeply, and this philosophy is his legacy that I try to uphold. Through this experience, I have come to the realisation that I no longer have to achieve anything for myself, which is very freeing - so I hope I can use much of my time to serve others.
Q: Who has been most influential in your professional growth?
I am very fortunate to have had a ‘science soulmate’, someone who I worked closely with, and who has complementary skills and is also an amazing friend and colleague, Dr Catherine Riou. She recently left the IDM. She has been the most influential person in my career. It is possible to have a peer, so not necessarily a senior, who you can work with really well, learn a lot from, and at the same time advance both your careers. Together you push yourselves forward and do more than each can alone, and we had great fun in the process.
Q: Can you share a hurdle you faced as a woman in your field and how you navigated it?
Like many other women I know, that would be; to believe that you're enough, and you don’t always have to prove yourself. Bring your authentic self to situations, speak your truth, your voice is valuable, even if it comes out shakily. If you make mistakes, give yourself the grace to know that everyone does. My therapist helped a lot to deal with some of these things. I highly recommend therapy.
Q: Looking ahead, what excites you most about your work?
I am excited about our work on developing local mRNA vaccines for RSV and Mpox in collaboration with Afrigen and Biovac. I hope that one day these vaccines will prevent disease and save lives.
Q: What milestone at the IDM still gives you a sense of “We did it”?
My proudest recent achievement was the Nature paper that we published in 2022 during the pandemic, together with Catherine Riou, Roanne Keeton and my whole team. It was an opportunistic study answering a key scientific question that presented itself during the COVID pandemic about whether T cell responses are cross-reactive against different variants - we showed that they are, and that vaccine protection against severe disease was maintained.
We assembled scientists from around the country to contribute samples, sequences and analysis (there were 50 authors on the paper), did an enormous amount of work, literally working 24-7 for a couple of months, and fought some tough reviewers and editors. I hadn’t even dreamed of getting a senior author Nature paper, and I am really proud of the effort we put in.
Q: In five years’ time, what impact do you hope your work will have on the IDM and on society?
Currently my group is engaged in vaccine development work – democratising access to mRNA vaccines – with RSV and Mpox vaccines that we are developing in collaboration with a local biotech Afrigen, who form part of the WHO mRNA technology transfer hub. We are also now working with Biovac as they scale up candidate mRNA vaccines. My hope is that after preclinical development we can test these in clinical trials and ultimately manufacture them locally, and that these vaccines, and others we will develop, will have a real impact, preventing disease and saving lives. Local development and manufacture also means vaccine sovereignty and being better prepared for future pandemics.
For the IDM, I would like to see us genuinely reflect South Africa’s diversity at every level of leadership – this is long overdue, especially at the top. I hope also that we can revitalise the IDM so that we are a powerhouse of excellent postgraduate training - where students do great research, get excellent supervision, pick up transferable skills, and don’t complete their PhDs depressed and exhausted, but rather skilled, excited to contribute to change and ready for the workplace, be that academia, industry or elsewhere. I’d also love to see our plan for an IDM Translation Hub realised - one that has forged stronger industry ties to develop locally-made vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, and supports entrepreneurs and start-ups.
Q: What does Women’s Day mean to you personally, and what message would you share with early‑career women?
I say this as much to myself as other women – give yourself a break and a little grace. We do so much emotional labour in addition to the rest of our labour, both at work and at home, we need to give ourselves permission to walk away sometimes, even if it seems we are letting people down.
I would also like to recommend “The 7 Necessary Sins for Women and Girls” by Egyptian feminist Mona Eltahawy – it will change your life.
Q: One habit or practice that helps you stay grounded outside of work?
Spending time talking, walking and laughing with my bestie, my boyfriend, my mom and my cat (not necessarily in order of importance).