Catherine Koofhethile

Catherine K Koofhethile (Khei) is a Motswana scientist currently based at Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) as a Research Scientist/ Principal Investigator working closely with Joe Makhema and Sikhulile Moyo. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in the US where she was mentored by Prof. Roger Shapiro, Prof. Max Essex, and Prof. Phyllis Kanki. She now holds a Visiting Scientist position at HSPH. She is also a Visiting/collaborating research fellow at The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in the USA under the mentorship of Prof. Mathias Lichterfeld. Koofhethile holds a PhD in Immunology from University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Master’s Degree in Immunology from University of Birmingham, UK and a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honors in Medical Microbiology from the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Her current research at HSPH and BHP has been focused on the assessment of the genetic composition of HIV proviral reservoir and factors that drive HIV to persist long term in several cohorts including adolescents from Botswana who are receiving long-term ART and infants from Mozambique who received ART early in life. She also studied how another type of HIV (HIV-2) persists in a different cohort. All this work is important for advancing HIV cure research. She is currently leading BHP’s efforts of setting up basic science HIV cure research in Botswana and facilitating technology transfer. She is involved in building capacity at BHP by co-mentoring students as well as young researchers.