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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Research Groupings
associated with this theme
Lung Infection and
Immunity Unit
The Lung Infection and Immunity Unit (LIIU) comprises
approximately 40 students and staff embedded within the
Division of Pulmonology in the Department of Medicine
at UCT. The research focus is on lung infections and
diseases of poverty, including tuberculosis, pneumonia
and HIV. The unit also has a clinical trials division, which is
located within the UCT Lung Institute. The unit’s research
focus areas include the pathogenesis, diagnosis and
outcomes of multi-drug-resistant pulmonary infections,
the development and evaluation of field-friendly
diagnostics for TB and other pulmonary infections, and
the immunology of pulmonary infections with special
emphasis on regulatory T-cells and innate immunity.
The LIIU is a WHO-associated African Network for Drugs
and Diagnostics Innovation Centre of Excellence. The
work of the unit has informed policy documents on drug-
resistant TB and diagnostics, and seminal work has been
published about the immunology of pulmonary TB.
Capacity-development activities have included the
organisation of several popular annual courses attended
by researchers from all over Africa, the establishment of
clinical recruitment infrastructure at clinical trial sites in
Cape Town, and the training and mentorship of clinician
scientist PhD students. A recently filed patent has spawned
a UCT spin-off company that is developing a diagnostic
test for extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
Director: Professor K Dheda
E-mail: keertan.dheda@uct.ac.za
Web:http://www.lunginstitute.co.za/content/lung_
infection.html
Hatter Institute for
Cardiovascular Research In Africa
The aims of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular
Research in Africa are to facilitate national and
international research collaborations, to consolidate and
expand existing efforts to combat the most serious
cardiovascular threats to health, and to improve overall
prosperity in the region. Major research areas are cardiac
disease and maternity, cardioprotection, cardiovascular
genetics and Heart of Africa projects. In Africa,
cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of
maternal death in pregnant women. The objective of the
institute’s Cardioprotection Group is the delineation of
novel cardioprotective pathways that can be activated to
limit cell death in various pathophysiological conditions
such as heart failure, myocardial infarction or diabetes.
The Cardiovascular Genetics Group aims to discover
the genetic basis of inherited heart diseases that cause
sudden death. This work involves the study of rare
families with monogenic disease (that is, inherited
cardiomyopathies and arrhythmogenic disorders), and
the delineation of the genetic architecture of complex
traits associated with sudden death (such as cardiac
hypertrophy). These studies hold promise of discovering
the critical biological pathways that can be targeted by
drugs to prevent sudden cardiac death. The Heart of
Africa Pan-African Hypertension Cohort was established
in 2010 to describe the epidemiology and characteristics
of pulmonary hypertension in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Director: Professor K Sliwa-Hahnle
E-mail: karen.sliwa-hahnle@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.hatter.uct.ac.za
Members of the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit