April 2024
Dr Rubina Bunjun obtained her PhD and completed her post-doc at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. Her current research focuses on understanding immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Africa, namely, investigating pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in adolescents, and immune dysfunction during “long COVID”. Rubina is also a Junior Research Fellow within the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at UCT. She is also passionate about science communication and is an advocate for improving mental health in academia.
Read more – Rubina Bunjun
March 2024
Dr Prossy Naluyima is a laboratory scientist with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical laboratory technology from Makerere University, a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK, and a doctorate in Medical Science, specializing in Immunology from Karolinska Institute of Sweden.
She has 20 years of experience in medical research with the Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), Uganda. Dr Naluyima oversees laboratories that support the evaluation of the health of patients, and the safety and immunogenicity of biological products for the prevention or therapy of infectious and non-infectious diseases.
Read more – Prossy Naluyima
February 2024
Talitha Müller is near the end of their PhD in Clinical Science and Immunology under the supervision of Prof Jonny Peter and Prof Edward Sturrock; and she recently finished her 4th year of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Talitha is on the MBChB-PhD track under the UCT CSTP (Clinician Scientist Training Program) at UCT. She is studying the effect that COVID-19 disease has on the renin angiotensin system (RAS) and its links to the immune response to COVID-19, across the spectrum of disease severity from asymptomatic infection to critical disease.
Read more – Talitha Müller
January 2024
Lauren Cruywagen completed an undergraduate degree in Medical Biosciences at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She earned an honours degree in Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Lauren became a Medical Scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand. She then moved back to Cape Town to join laboratory-based roles in Immunology at the UCT Lung Institute. After working for an academic institution for a few years, Lauren took a short employment experience as a Quality Control Scientist at Roche Sequencing Solutions. Lauren was a Senior Research Assistant within the Stellenbosch University Immunology Group. She is now a PhD student at South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at UCT.
Read more – Lauren Cruywagen
