Lerato Ndlovu

Lerato Ndlovu hails from Estcourt, a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Inspired by the television series CSI, she pursued studies in the biological sciences and went on to obtain a PhD in Laboratory Medicine from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Her doctoral research focused on identifying biological signatures of early tuberculosis (TB) treatment response, with the long-term aim of contributing to shorter TB treatment regimens.

Her earlier work focused mainly on diagnosed TB cases, which led her to broaden her research interest toward the larger challenge of asymptomatic and early-stage TB—forms that account for a substantial proportion of TB cases but often go undetected. As a result, she is now focused on characterising the full spectrum of TB disease to improve detection of “missing” cases, particularly in high HIV-prevalence settings. She is also an INSIGHT Fogarty Postdoctoral Fellow.

Beyond her research, she is actively involved in community and public engagement initiatives, with a strong focus on science literacy and its role in infectious disease control. She has received several grants supporting this work, including an African Academy of Sciences grant for improving science literacy among rural high school learners in KwaZulu-Natal, an Ethox/AHRI grant on ethical considerations around mandatory vaccination in the workplace, and a Falling Walls Foundation Female Science Talents Fellowship aimed at strengthening leadership and career development.