A Cure for HIV: Dissecting Africa's First HIV-cure Trial - Prof. Thumbi Ndung'u

Hosted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wealth Okete⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, The Immunology in Africa Podcast explores narratives at the nexus of immunology & Africa. We ask professors, postdocs, PhD students, and everyone in between to tell us about their journey into immunology, the questions driving their current work, and the impact they hope to make on the continent.

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Thumbi Ndung’u is a faculty member at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa; Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research at the HIV Pathogenesis Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Programme Director for the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE); Professor of Infectious Diseases at University College London, UK; Associate Member of the Ragon Institute; Adjunct Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Provost's Visiting Professor of HIV Virology and Immunology at Imperial College London, UK.

He is the recipient of several awards for scientific excellence and leadership contributions, including the South African Medical Research Council Gold Scientific Achievement Award, the Leadership Award in Public Health Practice from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and the KT Jeang Retrovirology Prize in recognition of outstanding work on HIV. He has also received grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Science for Africa Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the South African National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and others.

His research focuses on understanding interactions between HIV and the immune system and how these may be harnessed and translated for HIV prevention or cure.

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In this episode, he talks about his journey with HIV and immunology that has spanned at least three decades and birthed several groundbreaking contributions, the most recent being Africa’s first HIV cure trial for women living with the virus.

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Timestamps:

00:00 – podcast intro

01:05 – guest intro

02:00 – starting out, maximising opportunities: from a coffee farm to veterinary school

05:19 – getting into immunology research

07:16 – ImmunoAfrica x Immunopaedia quiz interlude I

08:40 – making a mark in immunology, from Nairobi to Harvard | isolating subtype C strain of HIV

12:15 – misconceptions and big questions in HIV research

17:30 – research and contributions leading up to the HIV Cure Project

21:04 – convincing people living with HIV to stay off medications (antiretroviral therapy, ART) for trial

23:51 – integrating socioeconomic empowerment into biomedical research | The FRESH project

25:45 – designing, conducting the HIV Cure trial | more on The FRESH project

31:50 – major findings from, next steps for the HIV Cure trial

39:40 – why only women were recruited for the cure trial

41:33 – adverse outcomes in participants

43:40 – ImmunoAfrica x Immunopaedia quiz interlude II

45:00 – coming up with new ideas

46:52 – visibility for scientists and its role in strengthening local R&D

53:32 – experience with mentorship: paying it forward

56:55 – final remarks

57:42 - outro