Rufaro Chivaura

Rufaro Chivaura was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. She holds an MSc in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and has spent the past eight years working in a medical testing laboratory specialising in immunology tests (hormones, cardiac markers, cancer markers, etc.) and molecular tests (HIV, MTBMDR, HPV, HBV, etc.).Although working in this industry has been very enjoyable, Rufaro now seeks to further her education by undertaking a PhD focusing on mapping antibody epitope specificity for broadly neutralising antibodies against HIV. Broadly neutralising antibodies are usually classified as elite neutralisers.

Broadly neutralising antibodies developed by perinatally infected children may have different characteristics from those developed by adults. Previous work has shown that children with chronic HIV infection have good cross-clade breadth and potency. Therefore, it is important to understand which broadly neutralising antibodies are being produced and which epitopes on HIV they target.This will aid in the eventual development of therapeutic treatments using antibody combination therapy with different epitope specificities. This multipronged approach could also assist in the development of a functional cure and support vaccine development.