Biography

I was drawn into the curious and complex world of immunology during my Honours degree in the Horsnell group at the University of Cape Town, where I studied lung pathology in the acute immune response to helminth infections. This, against my background as a clinician and further education in public health, has led my professional interests towards the intersection of these three areas: fundamental science, clinical medicine and population health. By identifying important health concerns and addressing them across scales, I hope to improve global health outcomes through my career in a cost-effective and context-relevant manner which prioritises reaching under-served people. In partnership with global leaders in the field, my PhD aims to develop and test a novel vaccine platform to generate broadly-protective vaccines against Betacoronaviruses. The idea underlying this work is ‘pandemic preparedness’ – aiming to ensure the next human viral pandemic is comparatively minor by pre-emptively improving the breadth and efficacy of available vaccines. I am privileged to be joining the Gates Cambridge community, and am very grateful to the Trust for this wonderful opportunity.

Previous Education

University of Cape Town Public Health (Epi & Biostats) 2022
University of Cape Town Medicine 2017
University of Cape Town Infectious Disease, Immunology 2014