Dr Mukhlid Yousif obtained his BSc degree from the University of Khartoum, Sudan in 2002 majoring in microbiology and thereafter his MSc qualification in molecular biology. He worked as a Medical Scientist in one of the most advanced laboratories in Khartoum and has also worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Endemic Diseases at the University of Khartoum. Here he received training in molecular biology techniques and leishmania parasites research.
Yousif lectured undergraduate students in microbiology and molecular biology at the Nile College in Khartoum, after which he moved to the United Arab Emirates, working in one of the biggest hospitals in the Department of Molecular Biology.
After this stint he relocated to Johannesburg to pursue his PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he joined Professor Anna Kramvis’ laboratory in the field of Hepatitis B Virus research. In 2016, Yousif joined the Centre for HIV and STIs at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases as a Senior Medical Scientist in the HIV drug resistance surveillance programme. After four years he moved to the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology, where he is focusing on the polio eradication programme, measles elimination programme, Hepatitis B and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance. His research projects include SARS-CoV-2 sequencing from wastewater and serological detection of SARS-CoV-2 in children. Yousif has a keen interest in virology, molecular epidemiology and bioinformatics.

Herman Geyer is a Medical Scientist at the Department of Special Bacterial Pathogens Reference Laboratory, Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa. His current focus includes laboratory investigation (diagnostics, research and surveillance) of high containment bacterial pathogens (Bacillus anthracis, Brucellaspp., Burkholderia spp., pathogenic Clostridium spp., Yersinia spp. and Leptospira spp.), test development, optimisation and validation (culturing, serology and molecular), formal teaching/training and assessment of students and staff members in laboratory skills (high containment pathogens and BSL3 activities and safety), and biorisk management in the laboratory.
He obtained both his BSc and BMedSc Hons at the University of the Free State and his MSc at the University of Pretoria. His research interest includes Bacteriology (Medical and Veterinary), Bacterial Zoonotic Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, One Health, and Biorisk Management.

Wayne Howard is a Medical Scientist at the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been involved in poliovirus surveillance and eradication efforts for over a decade. As a virologist and molecular biologist, his poliovirus eradication efforts have seen him working with the World Health Organization and the National Department of Health. Howard is involved periodically in training delegates from African countries in poliovirus laboratory surveillance techniques. He is trained in high-containment laboratory operations and is now branching out into immunology. His Ph.D. is focusing on the nicotinamide synthesis pathway and macrophage polarisation in COVID-19.

Mvuyo Makhasi studied Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand and started his career as a technical specialist in the Visa payments network for a private bank. He always had a passion for using technology and innovation to solve real world challenges and was fortunate to be appointed as a Master’s Fellow at the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, where he ran his first study – a wearable proximity sensor pilot for quantifying contact patterns between individuals in households in South Africa (Mpumalanga and North West).
Makhasi fell in love with public health research instantly and developed a strong interest in public health and epidemiology. He obtained a master’s degree from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, where he used quantitative methods to analyse contact patterns towards understanding transmission dynamics of respiratory diseases. He is also interested in developing health systems that improve data collection and analysis of respiratory disease surveillance in South Africa.
Makhasi’s primary research focus is establishing a crowdsourced health platform for the syndromic surveillance of acute respiratory infections (ARI). This involves developing a digital participatory surveillance platform, where members of the community in South Africa can self-report symptoms of ARI, using an online survey. The goal is to address some of the limitations of respiratory disease surveillance and describe the epidemiology of non-medically attended cases of ARI. In addition to this, he is working on assessing the feasibility of linking this platform to laboratory confirmation of self-reported suspected cases through home-based testing. He would like to learn more and employ the application of Big Data and Data Science approaches to respiratory disease epidemiology.

Fahima Moosa, is a Senior Medical Scientist at the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis (CRDM), located at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. She obtained her MSc qualification, with distinction, from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS).
Her main research focus for her MSc was to determine the detection rate of B. pertussis amongst individuals presenting with severe and mild respiratory disease in South Africa. Moosa is now enrolled at WITS as a PhD student and is continuing her research on B. pertussis.
In addition to her PhD research objectives, Moosa has been involved in managing the molecular laboratory aspects of the pneumonia surveillance study at CRDM, which focuses on obtaining epidemiology and molecular data on respiratory pathogens, influenza, RSV, SARS-CoV-2 and B. pertussis.

Maimuna Carrim is a Senior Medical Scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She completed her Master’s degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she explored the prevalence of bacteria causing atypical pneumonia in South Africa. Carrim is currently pursuing her PhD that focusses on understanding carriage and transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae through a community cohort study in South Africa. She is also working on determining aberrations in the nasopharyngeal microbiome in influenza positive individuals.
Furthermore, Carrim has been the involved in coordinating the molecular laboratory aspects of the Prospective Household Observational Cohort Study of SARS-CoV-2, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and other Respiratory Pathogens Community Burden and Transmission Dynamics in South Africa (The PHIRST study and PHIRST-C study).

As a Medical Scientist in the field of medical virology, Ewaldé Cutler is currently involved in HIV surveillance, with specific interests in clinical and implementation research of new HIV diagnostic technologies in the Centre for HIV and STIs at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is trained in HIV molecular diagnostics, HIV vaccine end-point testing and quality assurance. Additionally, Cutler is a Scientific Project Manager for HIV incidence and surveillance trials, National Antenatal HIV Surveys and HIV household surveys.
She has contributed to publications relating to HIV, syphilis, HPV and SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, medical male circumcision and external quality assurance professional with an MSc focused on Medical Virology from University of the Witwatersrand.

Josie Everatt is a Bioinformatics Scientist at the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis (CRDM) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Prior to working at the CRDM she completed an MSc in Bioinformatics at the University of Edinburgh (funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission), during which she worked on a tool to simulate a thermodynamic model of RNA editing in Trypanosoma brucei. She also holds a BSc (Hons) in Genetics and BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Everatt has a wide range of interests within the field of bioinformatics, especially within genetics and genomics. She also enjoys coming up with new ways to visualise data, and developing scripts and pipelines to help streamline workflows. Her current focus is genomic surveillance and sequencing data analysis of respiratory pathogens, primarily SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus. She has co-authored several papers on SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance, which have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Antoinette Grobbelaar is currently employed as a Medical Scientist in the Special Viral Pathogens Laboratory of the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. She is involved in the development and validation of molecular tools for the diagnosis of viral hemorrhagic fever viruses and rabies. Grobbelaar’s obtained an MSc qualification at the University of the Witwatersrand and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch. Her research focus is on molecular epidemiology of zoonotic viral pathogens.