Emerita Professor Anna-Lise Williamson (PhD), Senior Research Scholar, Division of Medical Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town (UCT)

E. Professor Williamson is a scientist with expertise in virology and vaccinology.  From 2008-2022 she held a South African Research Initiative (SARChI) chair in vaccinology in the at the University of Cape Town (UCT) which enabled research and the training of post-graduate students.  She is also a full Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), and a member of the SAMRC Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre (GCRC) at UCT. She spent over twenty years on the immune response to HPV and the molecular epidemiology of the virus, to inform local HPV vaccine introduction.   As HIV and HPV are both the cause of major public health problems in SA, she has a specific interest in the impact of HIV infection on HPV and has established her lab as an important world centre of expertise in the area. She has a long history of doing preclinical vaccine research including a project that resulted in phase 1 clinical trials for two locally designed candidate HIV vaccines. Recent research in her laboratory has improved on these vaccines. Current veterinary vaccine projects include a novel bovine ephemeral fever virus vaccine based on lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV). Research is also being done on improved foot and mouth disease vaccines. There are also several SARS-CoV2 vaccines developed in her laboratory that have been tested in a hamster challenge model at UCT. In 2021 she became actively involved in two African initiatives. The first was to take the lead on the African research Universities (ARUA) Southern African Vaccine Research Hub. The other was as chair of the workstream on R&D, hubs and talent development as part of the framework for action for Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) sponsored by the Africa CDC for the African Union.