Improving health and well-being of under-resourced populations in South Africa
With a grant of USD 90 Millions from Wellcome Trust, the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), South Africa, is now able to expand its research over the next seven years to address key questions focusing at improving health in under-resourced populations, including HIV and Tuberculosis (TB). The Department of Immunology and Microbiology (ISIM) at the University of Copenhagen plays an active role in several ongoing and coming research projects in collaboration with AHRI.
The seven-year grant from Wellcome Trust will support the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) pioneering scientific research toward achieving its vision, which is the optimal health and well-being of under-resourced populations.
Key questions to be addressed will be:
- How can HIV be prevented in rural communities?
- How can HIV be cured?
- How can TB spread be prevented in rural communities?
- Do new vaccines prevent TB disease?
- How can new infections such as Covid-19 be identified early and controlled?
- How can mental health disorders in rural adolescents best be treated?
Located at the heart of the global HIV/TB co-epidemics in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), AHRI’s research activities spans over two campuses: Basic and translational science at AHRI-Durban, and population surveillance at AHRI-Somkhele, focusing on understanding and responding to diseases that are the major causes of illness and death in South Africa.
Activities at ISIM
Associate Professor Henrik Kløverpris from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology (ISIM) at the University of Copenhagen runs a laboratory at AHRI that offers unique opportunities to study HIV infection and immune responses at the surface barrier sites of disease, including the intestinal and oral mucosae (HIV mucosal immunology). His lab is currently running five clinical cohorts, including a recently started HIV-skin cohort. This new core grant at AHRI will facilitate further development, which will include activities at ISIM and take advantage of the state-of-the-art equipment available at ISIM.
The grant will furthermore support AHRI in its mission to train the next generation of African scientists through exchange of Master Students, PhDs and Postdocs between the institute in South Africa and the Department in Denmark.
Read the full announcement here
Contact:
Henrik Kløverpris
hkloverpris@sund.ku.dk