Dr Bavesh Kana
E-mail: bavesh.kana@nhls.ac.za

Bavesh completed his PhD degree and postdoctoral fellowship in the MMRU. He is the recipient of a Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS Training and Research Program fellowship for postdoctoral training in 2004/5 at the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) in New Jersey (USA) and has also undertaken short-term working visits to collaborating labs at the University of Pennsylvania and Texas A&M University.

Dr Bavna Gordhan
E-mail: bhavna.gordhan@nhls.ac.za

Bhavna pioneered the development of methods for targeted gene knockout in M. tuberculosis in the MMRU and is responsible for running the MMRU's BSL3 laboratories. Bhavna is the recipient of a Career Development Award from the MRC and has obtained funding from the NRF to develop new lines of research and to support postgraduate student training.

Prof Eileen Hoal van Helden
E-mail: egvh@sun.ac.za

Eileen G. Hoal: Senior Researcher at Stellenbosch University. She has been working in the field of tuberculosis since 1993. She heads a group in the department investigating the host genetic susceptibility to tuberculosis. These investigations involve case-control and family-based association studies to find genes involved in increased susceptibility to TB, and also genetic studies involving intermediate phenotypes which may point the way to genes contributing to the risk of contracting TB or determine the reaction to vaccines and TB drugs.

Gerhard leads the immunology group in Molecular Biology and Human Genetics and is also a part-time consultant physician and pulmonologist in the Lung Unit at Tygerberg Hospital.  With his research he tries to bridge the divide between clinical disciplines and the basic sciences. The group focuses on the immunology of infectious diseases. Biomarkers of different outcomes of TB infection and different outcomes of TB treatment are important research topics. Such markers could become important tools for vaccine design and development of new TB therapies, respectively. The group also examines the effect of gastrointestinal helminth infection on HIV disease progression in humans and on TB infection in animal models. 

Dr Ian Wiid
E-mail: iw@sun.ac.za

This group is exploring unique genetic characteristics of M.tuberculosis and evaluating these characteristics as possible targets for new drug development. Other areas of research include M.tuberculosis survival under conditions of oxidative stress.

Dr Nico Gey van Pittius
E-mail: ngvp@sun.ac.za
Nico is a senior researcher with a PhD in medical molecular biology.  He has a very good working knowledge of bioinformatics and has an interest in mycobacterial genetics and comparative mycobacterial genomics.  Nico is currently working on the ESAT-6 gene clusters, as well as the PE and PPE multigene families of M. tuberculosis.  In addition, he is interested in the identification of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and is involved in several studies in a community with a high incidence of tuberculosis.
A summary of his research interests includes the following:  
Comparative Mycobacterial Genomics; The ESAT-6 gene cluster regions; Tuberculosis Vaccine Design; Secreted Mycobacterial Antigens and Mycobacterial Protein Secretion Systems; The PE / PE_PGRS / PPE multigene families; Mycobacterial Proteases (especially subtilisins), Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM)
More info can be found on his webpage at: http://academic.sun.ac.za/med_biochem/staff/nico/index.html

Prof Rob Warren:
E-mail: rw1@sun.ac.za
My research continues to focus on the disease dynamics of the M. tuberculosis epidemic in two vastly different communities, the evolution of the M. tuberculosis genome, the global spread of defined M. tuberculosis strains, the development of new epidemiological markers, the diagnosis of MDR TB, the population structure of M. tuberculosis strains in the host and the identification of mechanisms leading to drug resistance. My most recent success has been in the field of multiple M. tuberculosis infections where I developed a PCR-based method to determine the population structure of M. tuberculosis in sputum samples. Using this technology it has been possible to interrogate clinical isolates more closely and we have now shown that altering drug resistance profiles in patient sputum samples may result from different strain populations being selected for by different anti-tuberculosis drugs. This study promises to provide exciting new insights into pathogen-pathogen and host pathogen interactions and has significant consequences for future vaccine research. Adaptation of this technique has allowed for the rapid speciation of mycobacteria and I have applied these methods to identify M. bovis BCG, M. bovis and M. tuberculosis in different clinical specimens. From these results we were able to demonstrate: 1) the pathogenicity of the avirulent vaccine strain in immune compromised children, 2) infection of a dairy herd with M. bovis, and 3) a correlation between sarcoidosis and a persistent form of tuberculosis.

Dr Stephanie Dawes
E-mail: stephanie.dawes@nhls.ac.za

Stephanie has obtained funding from the NHLS Trust and NRF to develop new areas of research in mycobacterial metabolism and is involved in postgraduate student supervision and lecturing to medical students and pathology registrars. She is the recipient of a Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program postdoctoral training fellowship, which she held at Rockefeller University in 2003.