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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
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 joined the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, where her research focuses on T cell immune responses to viral pathogens such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2, with the aim of understanding mechanisms of viral control.

She currently serves as the Vaccine Studies Group Lead, overseeing HIV and COVID-19 vaccine research projects. She also coordinates a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) project aimed at characterising HLA allele and haplotype frequencies in eastern and southern Africa, generating data that supports vaccine development efforts in the region.

Through her work, she aims to contribute to the development of an effective HIV vaccine and strengthen immunological research capacity in Africa.

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 Gates Foundation; Gilead Sciences Inc.; and the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard.

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