Wits secures prestigious research chair
28 February 2013, Johannesburg: The Wits Faculty of Health Sciences is proud to announce the appointment of one of its Associate Professors, Professor Caroline Tiemessen, as the DST/NRF Chair of HIV Vaccine Translational Research. The Chair will be based in the School of Pathology in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) South African research Chair programme has been running for a decade and aims to reward and increase research capacity at South African universities, allowing them to remain internationally competitive across a range of fields.
A DST/NRF Chair is highly prestigious and is awarded following application and intense competition by all major Institutions in the country. The appointment of Professor Tiemessen, of the Centre for HIV and STIs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, came as a result of a strong proposal from Professor Tiemessen that has as its major focus the identity and understanding of what constitutes protection from HIV infection and from disease progression in those who are HIV infected, with the aim of translating these findings into effective strategies for HIV prevention.
Professor Tiemessen studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduated with a BSc in 1984 (Majors: Microbiology and Zoology) and BSc (Honours) in Microbiology in 1985. She has a PhD (Virology). She is currently appointed as Reader in the University of the Witwatersrand and holds a joint appointment between the NHLS and the University. In 2005 Professor Tiemessen was awarded a prestigious Welcome Trust International Senior Research Fellowship for five years.
Describing her current research, Tiemessen explains: “Over recent years we have focused particularly on studies of maternal-infant HIV-1 transmission as a model for understanding protective immunity to HIV-1. Studying the immune responses and other characteristics such as virus and host among both mothers and their infants, allows us the ability to address questions of protective immunity (why some infants succumb to infection and others not), of disease progression in the HIV-1 infected mothers, and of acute infection in infants who become infected. We are increasingly seeing how this information from these mother-child studies also applies to HIV transmission in adults.”
“We come from the perspective that no protective immune process is likely caused by a single modality, and involvement of many interacting immune components can be envisaged with different capacities of these coded for in host genes.”
Professor Tiemessen’s research shows differences between the immune responses and genes of those who get infected and those who do not. The focus is on immune responses that recognise small fragments of HIV proteins as well as on genes that are protective against disease progression.
It is a complex field of study aimed at attempting to understand why some individuals exposed to HIV escape infection, and why some HIV-infected individuals are able to very effectively control the virus and remain healthy for long periods without the need for antiretroviral treatment. Particularly of interest is the group – referred to as elite controllers – that are able to successfully suppress virus replication to undetectable levels.
“We are trying to learn as much as possible about natural resistance and in a way nature has done the work for us,” she says.
For example, it was from early studies of genes of individuals protected from getting HIV infection and those with slow disease progression that CCR5 emerged as a major target for antiviral therapies and more recently gene therapy strategies.
Studying natural resistance will reveal more viral or host targets, she explains.
Professor Tiemessen says it is important for this research to take place in Africa as there has been scant research done on the local population, and the most significant challenge facing both the country and Wits in remedying this is access to sufficient funding for research and attracting and retaining good scientists.
“This sponsored Chair will therefore go a long way. Students are an important component of my group’s research endeavours, and make substantial contributions to furthering the scientific outputs. They bring a youthful energy, different perspectives and keep one on ones’ toes,” concludes Professor Tiemessen.