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Tiza Nguni

DELTAS Africa I Fellowship Recipient


Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa

Project

Understanding CD8+ T cell-mediated HIV control (subtypes A and C) in eastern and southern Africa: emphasis on dominant networked epitopes and HLA class I alleles

Collaboration Interests
  • Community and public engagement
Supervisor
E
Etienne Karita 
Zaza Ndhlovu

Tiza Ng’uni obtained her PhD in cancer and antimicrobial research from the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. She later relocated to Durban to join AHRI, where her work is focused on investigating T cell immune responses to viral pathogens such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2 to better understand the mechanisms associated with the control of viral infections. She is currently the Vaccine Studies Group Lead and oversees projects focused on HIV and COVID-19 vaccine research. Ng’uni is also coordinating a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) project aimed at characterising HLA allele and haplotype frequencies in eastern and southern Africa. The data generated on HLA usage in the region will serve as an important resource for researchers developing new vaccines. Through her work, she hopes to contribute to the quest for an HIV vaccine.

Publications
Unsuppressed HIV infection impairs T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and abrogates T cell cross-recognition Major Scientific Hurdles in HIV Vaccine Development: Historical Perspective and Future Directions Low pre-existing endemic human coronavirus (HCoV-NL63)-specific T cell frequencies are associated with impaired SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in people living with HIV

SANTHE is an Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) flagship programme funded by the Science for Africa Foundation through the DELTAS Africa programme; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Gilead Sciences Inc.; and the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard.

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