Dr Anna Coussens

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Location
South Africa
University of Cape Town
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Departments

Health Sciences
Pathology

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Research Profiles
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Focus Areas / Specialisation

    Tuberculosis
    HIV
    Vitamin D

Email Me

Bio

I am a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where I lead a translational clinical research program on tuberculosis and HIV-1 immunology focused on the discovery of biomarkers of infection and host-directed interventions for the prevention and treatment of disease. I am based within the recently established Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa) within the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM). I have expertise in developing pre-clinical cellular models of host-pathogen interaction on which we test interventions to prevent pathogen replication, cell death and matrix destruction. This allows us to reverse-translate our clinical findings in order to investigate mechanisms of immune pathology and develop novel interventions for further clinical testing I am working on ways of transforming my research outcomes into changes in health guidelines for South Africa, for the prevention of TB and to decrease HIV-associated morbidity. I work in close contact with clinicians to ensure the clinical translation of my research to improve the health of people suffering form these diseases. As a part of my involvement in the Global State of Young Scientist (GloSYS) workgroup within the Global Young Academy (GYA), I am the Southern Africa Regional Champion for the GloSYS Africa project which aims to investigate the state of young scientists within Africa which will feed back into the main GloSYS project, to continually inform decision makers regarding the career paths of early career researchers, globally.