Thumbi Ndung'u

Professor Thumbi Ndung’u is interested in understanding antiviral immune mechanisms and viral adaptation in HIV-1 subtype C infection as a pathway to vaccine development. His work has focussed on understudied populations and viral strains in resource-limited, high burden settings where knowledge of the role of antiviral immune responses, viral strains and associated genetic factors is likely to yield the greatest impact in terms of biomedical interventions like vaccines. Thumbi’s early work addressed the lack of biological tools for HIV vaccine and pathogenesis research on HIV-1 subtype C, the predominant subtype globally and in southern Africa. He generated and characterized the first infectious molecular of HIV-1 subtype C from primary isolates, and constructed the first infectious subtype C envelope-derived simian-human immunodeficiency virus able to replicate in rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These tools were deposited in the NIH AIDS Reagent Program and remain available to researchers. The tools have facilitated in vitro and animal model studies of HIV-1 subtype C biology and vaccine development research. Thumbi also actively participates in the training of graduate and postdoctoral researchers and has a special interest in capacity building for biomedical research in Africa. He is a member of AHRI Faculty, where he heads up a lab. He is an Investigator and Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology Research Group Leader. He is also a University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research, Adjunct Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Scientific Director at UKZN’s HIV Pathogenesis Programme, the Programme Director for the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence and is the South African Research Chair in Systems Biology of HIV/Aids.