Catherine Koofhethile

Catherine K. Koofhethile is a Motswana scientist based at the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP)in Gaborone, Botswana where she serves as a Research Scientist and Principal Investigator working closely with Joe Makhema and Sikhulile Moyo.

She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health under the mentorship of Prof. Roger Shapiro, Prof. Max Essex, and Prof. Phyllis Kanki, and currently holds a Visiting Scientist position at Harvard. She is also a collaborating research fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard under the mentorship of Prof. Mathias Lichterfeld.

She holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, a Master’s degree in Immunology from the University of Birmingham, and a BSc (Hons) in Medical Microbiology from the University of Surrey.

Her research focuses on the genetic composition and persistence of the HIV proviral reservoir, particularly the factors that enable long-term viral persistence in individuals on antiretroviral therapy. Her work spans multiple cohorts, including adolescents in Botswana on long-term ART, infants in Mozambique treated early in life, and studies of HIV-2 persistence.

She is actively involved in advancing HIV cure research in Botswana, including establishing basic science cure research capacity and supporting technology transfer. She also contributes to capacity building through co-mentoring students and early-career researchers.