SANTHE awards $200,000 USD to four African collaborating scientists

Applications for SANTHE African Collaboration for Innovation in HIV/TB Prevention (ACP-HIV/TB) one-year grants were recently solicited from scientists worldwide to address critical challenges in HIV, TB and/or SARS-CoV-2 prevention. Collaborating scientists had to be from at least two different SANTHE sites and project proposals had to fit within three main areas including: surveillance of circulating HIV viruses to inform prevention, treatment and eradication strategies; mechanisms underlying heterogeneity of immune responses following vaccination of infection in African populations (with relevance to HIV, TB and SARS-CoV-2); or TB immunology.

Successful projects, which are due to be completed within the next two years, are:

Blood biomarkers that prospectively predict acute HIV-1 infection in high-risk adults

Principal Investigator:

• Abdirahman Abdi, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), Kilifi, Kenya

Collaborating Principal Investigators:

• Eunice Nduati, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), Kilifi, Kenya
• Thumbi Ndung’u, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa

CTL specificities associated with spontaneous control of HIV clades A and C that are dominant in East and Southern Africa

Principle Investigator:

• Zaza Ndhlovu, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa

Collaborating Principal Investigators:

• Etienne Karita, Rwanda Zambia Health Research Group (RZHRG), Kigali, Rwanda
• Caroline Chisenga, Centre for Infectious Diseases, Research, Zambia (CIDRZ), Lusaka, Zambia
• Gaurav Gaiha, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts, USA

Characterising currently circulating HIV in rural forest areas of Cameroon, where ancestors of HIV-1 have been identified

Principal Investigator:

• Marcel Tongo Passo, Centre de Recherche sur les Maladies Emergentes et Reemergentes (CREMER)/Institut Médicales des Plantes Médicinales (IMPM), Yaoundé, Cameroon

Collaborating Principal Investigator:

• Thumbi Ndung’u, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa

Antibody and T-Cell Responses Elicited by Different SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines in Botswana: Durability and Impact of HIV Infection and Previous SARS-CoV-2 and Prevalent Infection

Principal Investigator:

• Simani Gaseitsiwe, Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP), Gaborone, Botswana

Collaborating Principal Investigators:

• Sikhulile Moyo, Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP), Gaborone, Botswana
• Thumbi Ndung’u, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa