UCT TB researcher scores top fellowship
UCT researcher Dr Muki Shey has been awarded the prestigious Wellcome Intermediate Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine for his work to solve the secret behind the natural immunity to tuberculosis (TB) present in some health-care workers.
Shey is conducting research at the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa), in UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, to characterise specific immune cells that could prevent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
He believes his work could lead to the development of a new preventative vaccine.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is very infectious, yet some healthcare workers who are highly exposed in their working environment never contract TB, he said.
Shey believes this natural resistance could be attributed to variation in mucosalassociated invariant T (MAIT) cell numbers and function.
Once they come in contact with bacteria-infected cells, MAIT cells rapidly produce molecules that can directly kill infected cells thereby preventing or limiting infection.
“I was very excited to receive news about this prestigious award. I kept pinching myself to make sure I was not dreaming.
‘‘This will enable me to train other young scientists and establish myself as an independent researcher focusing on the role of MAIT cells and immunogenetics in resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in individuals with high occupational exposure.
‘‘Despite current protective measures, health-care workers still have a more than twofold higher risk of getting infected compared with the general population, and we need to find additional ways to protect them,” he said.
Shey will be recruiting health-care workers from TB hospitals in South Africa to participate in the study.
Participants will be asked to provide blood and lung fluid samples that will be used in laboratory analyses of MAIT cell frequency and behaviour.
Ultimately, this work could lead to development of a new prophylactic tuberculosis vaccine. Shey is currently conducting research at CIDRIAfrica on factors contributing to mortality in HIV-associated TB, and on cellular interactions between antigenpresenting cells.
He considers his research niche to lie at the interface of basic and clinical research where research findings can be translated from the laboratory to the clinic, and vice versa.
The Wellcome Trust identifies priority areas in which they can offer focused, intensive support in cases where there are real opportunities to transform lives.
They also help drive reform to ensure that ideas reach their full potential.