Keertan Dheda, MBBCh (Wits), FCP, FCCP, PhD (Lond), FRCP (Lond)

Keertan Dheda is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Director of the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit (see website at http://www.lunginstitute.co.za/content/lung_infection.html) within the Division of Pulmonology, Department of Medicine, at the University of Cape Town.

He is an internationally acknowledged clinician scientist and his main research interests are (i) clinical aspects of MDR & XDR-TB and (ii) the development and validation of field-friendly TB diagnostics. He is also interested in the immunopathogenesis of TB and other human pulmonary infections. He has established an international collaborative network and a local research programme in which 4 Masters and 6 PhD students are currently enrolled.

He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers including first or senior author publications in journals such as the Lancet, Annals Of Internal Medicine and AJRCCM. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards and holds 1 patent related to new TB diagnostic technologies, which is currently being developed as a user-friendly test for extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Two other patent applications are currently in progress (detection of novel urine diagnostic biomarkers for TB, and a novel x-ray screening tool for TB).

He has a keen interest in medical education. He serves or belongs to several local and international academic societies including serving as the Governor for American College of Chest Physicians for the South Africa region, the scientific committee of the Microbiology, TB and Pulmonary Infection group of the American Thoracic Society, and is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians. He serves on the editorial board of the multiple international peer-reviewed journals.

In addition to his directorship of the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit (a group of ~45 people who are funded by self-initiated research grants) within the Division of Pulmonology and Department of Medicine, at UCT, he also holds a honorary faculty position in the Department of Infection at UCL as part of the UCL-UCT Diseases of Poverty Collaboration Initiative, a programme designed to facilitate the training of African post-graduate students and advance global health.