Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wealth Okete⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, The Immunology in Africa Podcast explores narratives at the nexus of immunology & Africa. We ask professors, postdocs, PhD students, and everyone in between to tell us about their journey into immunology, the questions driving their current work, and the impact they hope to make on the continent.

To support our efforts towards amplifying African stories of immunology, you can ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buy us coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nominate a guest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Thumbi Ndung’u is a faculty member at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa; Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research at the HIV Pathogenesis Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Programme Director for the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE); Professor of Infectious Diseases at University College London, UK; Associate Member of the Ragon Institute; Adjunct Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Provost's Visiting Professor of HIV Virology and Immunology at Imperial College London, UK.

He is the recipient of several awards for scientific excellence and leadership contributions, including the South African Medical Research Council Gold Scientific Achievement Award, the Leadership Award in Public Health Practice from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and the KT Jeang Retrovirology Prize in recognition of outstanding work on HIV. He has also received grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Science for Africa Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the South African National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and others.

His research focuses on understanding interactions between HIV and the immune system and how these may be harnessed and translated for HIV prevention or cure.

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In this episode, he talks about his journey with HIV and immunology that has spanned at least three decades and birthed several groundbreaking contributions, the most recent being Africa’s first HIV cure trial for women living with the virus.

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To participate in our Trivia questions, visit our social media platforms via the links below.

- ImmunoAfrica: linktr.ee/immuno.africa

- Immunopaedia: immunopaedia.org.za

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Timestamps:

00:00 – podcast intro

01:05 – guest intro

02:00 – starting out, maximising opportunities: from a coffee farm to veterinary school

05:19 – getting into immunology research

07:16 – ImmunoAfrica x Immunopaedia quiz interlude I

08:40 – making a mark in immunology, from Nairobi to Harvard | isolating subtype C strain of HIV

12:15 – misconceptions and big questions in HIV research

17:30 – research and contributions leading up to the HIV Cure Project

21:04 – convincing people living with HIV to stay off medications (antiretroviral therapy, ART) for trial

23:51 – integrating socioeconomic empowerment into biomedical research | The FRESH project

25:45 – designing, conducting the HIV Cure trial | more on The FRESH project

31:50 – major findings from, next steps for the HIV Cure trial

39:40 – why only women were recruited for the cure trial

41:33 – adverse outcomes in participants

43:40 – ImmunoAfrica x Immunopaedia quiz interlude II

45:00 – coming up with new ideas

46:52 – visibility for scientists and its role in strengthening local R&D

53:32 – experience with mentorship: paying it forward

56:55 – final remarks

57:42 - outro

Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wealth Okete⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, The Immunology in Africa Podcast explores narratives at the nexus of immunology & Africa. We ask professors, postdocs, PhD students, and everyone in between to tell us about their journey into immunology, the questions driving their current work, and the impact they hope to make on the continent.

To support our efforts towards amplifying African stories of immunology, you can ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buy us coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nominate a guest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Launching in April 2025, our special TB Immunology series and first-ever disease-focused series dives deep into the science, challenges, and success stories behind the fight to end tuberculosis.

We’re joined by leading scientists whose work in TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine development is shaping the current landscape of the disease in Africa and globally.

Whether you're actively involved in TB research or simply curious about the field, this experience promises to be both eye-opening and engaging.

The seventh and final episode in the series features Professor Mohlopheni Jackson Marakalala who is currently the Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Centre for Tuberculosis Research at Stellenbosch University (SU), South Africa.

Marakalala completed his PhD in Chemical Pathology at the University of Cape Town (2008), receiving the Bronte Stewart Research Prize for the most meritorious PhD thesis. He then completed a total of 8 year postdoctoral training; 4 years in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at UCT and 4 years in Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Between 2016 and 2019, he was a Senior Lecturer at UCT and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard. From 2019 until his recent appointment as the Unit Director of the SAMRC Centre for TB Research, he has been a Wellcome Trust International Fellow and Faculty member at Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) and an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL).

His laboratory’s primary interest is on infectious diseases, particularly immunopathogenesis of Tuberculosis, with an aim of developing host-directed therapies targeting mediators of lung damage. His other interests are in understanding strategies utilized by mycobacteria to survive various arms of the immune system.

Work in his lab has been funded by grants from SA Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Personal achievements include recognition as a ‘Rising Star’ at the 2019 Grand Challenges meeting, NRF Emerging Researcher Excellence Award (2018), SA Medical Research Council Scientific Merit award (Silver medal) (2016); UCT 2016 College of Fellows Young Researcher Award; and the Next Einstein Forum (2016) Fellowship.

In this episode, he talks about how we may rethink funding for TB research in light of recent cuts which have dealt the field a heavy blow. In addition, he shares some of the plans and perspectives he brings to his recent role as Director of the SAMRC Centre for Tuberculosis Research.

Timestamps:

00:00 - intro

01:35 - journey to current role and work in TB

03:42 - qualities and factors that have shaped his career

06:21 - contributions to TB research; training younger scientists

12:14 - funding cuts and impact on his ongoing work

15:29 - does external funding limit what aspects of TB research can be studied in Africa?

20:49 - what alternative funding models do we start exploring to support local TB research?

26:32 - the role of scientists and scientific councils

29:40 - will Africa have the market to foster bio-entrepreneurship?

33:44 - plans and perspectives for current role - Director of the SAMRC-SU Centre for Tuberculosis Research

40:05 - closing remarks; future of TB in Africa

42:40 - Outro

Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wealth Okete⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, The Immunology in Africa Podcast explores narratives at the nexus of immunology & Africa. We ask professors, postdocs, PhD students, and everyone in between to tell us about their journey into immunology, the questions driving their current work, and the impact they hope to make on the continent.

To support our efforts towards amplifying African stories of immunology, you can ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buy us coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nominate a guest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

--

Launching in April 2025, our special TB Immunology series and first-ever disease-focused series dives deep into the science, challenges, and success stories behind the fight to end tuberculosis.

We’re joined by leading scientists whose work in TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine development is shaping the current landscape of the disease in Africa and globally.

Whether you're actively involved in TB research or simply curious about the field, this experience promises to be both eye-opening and engaging.

The sixth and penultimate episode in the series features Fatoumatta Darboe. Originally from The Gambia, Fatoumatta currently works as an Assistant Professional Researcher at the University of California, San Francisco in the United States.

Darboe ventured into TB research during her master's programme at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG) at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she also completed a postdoctoral training.

For her PhD at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), she sought to define TB correlates of disease risk in several South African cohorts of individuals co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This work resulted in the validation and publication of an 11-gene biomarker (Darboe11), which predicted and diagnosed TB disease, and predicted treatment responses in several TB/HIV co-infected cohorts.

In this episode, she takes us on her long-standing relationship with TB, including how her interest in TB-HIV coinfection developed. She shares updates on ongoing projects exploring a fascinating pathway implicated in TB and HIV and immunogenic antibodies for TB.

Additionally, she talks about what fuels her advocacy for female education and representation in leadership, and why it's important to audit one's "circle" according to their goals.

Timestamps:

00:00 - intro

01:17 - early journey, getting into TB research

06:46 - navigating growth with minimal supervision

10:20 - journey to SATVI; PhD research highlights

14:07 - current projects

14:48 - TB-HIV co-infection; TB risk in PLWH

17:45 - understanding the kynurenine-tryptophan (KT) pathway in HIV/TB

19:00 - is the KT pathway relevant in TB aside from HIV?

21:13 - potential application of findings

23:40 - using bacteriophage to unravel TB antibody responses

28:33 - which TB strains are targeted in antibody response study?

29:56 - challenges, barriers, and sacrifices

38:00 - closing remarks

38:58 - Outro