A researcher from Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Biomedical Research Institute will join an international HIV research program after a grant of R28 million had been awarded to the institute.
This is according to Martin Viljoen, SU spokesperson.
Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Biomedical Research Institute works with 11 other partners based in the United States and the United Kingdom in an ongoing HIV- research program called Next Generation Training in HIV Research (TIGRIS), said prof Clive Gray, head of the Division of Immunology at the institute. PHOTO: Kara le Roux
Immune systems and HIV
The R28 million grant from the Fogarty Centre at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), was awarded to SU’s Biomedical Research Institute around April 2024, said Dr Geetha Bansal, program director at the NIH.
This grant, running over a period of five years, aims to help scientists’ understand how HIV affects the immune systems of HIV-positive mothers and their newborn babies, said Prof Clive Gray, head of the Division of Immunology at SU’s Biomedical Research Institute.
The program, called Next Generation Training in HIV Research (TIGRIS), will take place at SU and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA , according to Prof Andrey Kuzmichev, communications director of the Fogarty Centre.
The Next Generation Training in HIV Research (TIGRIS) program’s training will take place at Stellenbosch University and laboratories across the United Kingdom and the United States, enhancing laboratory research and producing new data by utilising state-of-the-art technologies. This is according to Andrey Kuzmichev, communications director of the Fogarty International Centre. PHOTO: Kara le Roux
International collaboration
Partners of the program in the US and UK provide well-equipped labs for the research program, according to Gray.
Along with Gray, a total of 45 PhD, post-doctoral and MMed candidates will be chosen for three to six months of advanced lab training in the UK and USA, said Gray.
“Together with the other 10 partners we can offer a spectrum of laboratory placements according to the needs of the student applicants who will get selected,” said Gray.
The program will provide “rigorous clinical and basic science laboratory training,” according to Viljoen.
Focus on placental research
According to Gray, researchers want to learn what happens in the placentas of pregnant women with HIV.
Gray explained that the researchers’ main focus will be studying the placenta, which is the organ connecting a mother to a baby during pregnancy.
To do this, candidates will be trained in special techniques to study the placenta’s immune system, he said.
“Training will be around techniques that can tease out the immune compartment of the placenta- such as flow cytometry and spatial imaging techniques,” said prof Clive Gray, head of the Immunology Division at Stellenbosch University’s Biomedical Research Institute regarding training techniques that will be used in an international HIV research program. PHOTO: Kara le Roux
A step forward for Africa
“The outcomes and long-term vision will be to empower scholars throughout Africa in lab techniques that will advance the field of reproductive immunology in the continent,” Gray said.
As head of the Reproductive Immunology Research Council in Africa (RIRCA), Gray believes that this NIH grant will make RIRCA a competitive player globally.
Prof Clive Gray from Stellenbosch University (SU) received a major grant for research in HIV-positive mothers and their babies, according to SU spokesperson, Martin Viljoen. Video: Kara le Roux