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INFORMATION FOR

    South Africa

    Site Insitution: The Aurum Institute
    Research Areas: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Implementation Science

    Site Description:

    The Aurum Institute is a proudly South African, public benefit organization with over 15 years' experience leading the response, treatment and research efforts to eradicate TB and HIV. The Aurum Institute has a staff of 1200 researchers, implementers, and support personnel leading research and program implementation throughout South Africa. The Institute works alongside the government, mining industry, NGOs, and in communities to better understand the epidemics and provide real solutions. It has extensive experience implementing HIV/TB programs, including scaling up PEPFAR ART programs and the WHO TB control including isoniazid preventive therapy and intensified case finding.

    Aurum has three clinical trial sites located in three cities all within 200km of the central office in Johannesburg.

    • Rustenburg clinical trial site: has been in operation since 2007. Rustenburg Local Municipality is part of the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality which has a wealth of platinum mining. Because of the high HIV incidence in the province (estimated at 1.6%in adults 14-49 years) attributed in part to migrant labor and commercial sex work, this site has focused on HIV prevention since its inception and has done extensive behavioral and epidemiological studies to elucidate the local epidemic in preparation for biomedical intervention studies.
    • Tembisa clinical research site: is situated on the grounds of the Tembisa hospital, which is in the Ekurhuleni District of Gauteng Province. A research laboratory is located on-site and performs rapid HIV and urinalysis testing.
    • Klerksdorp clinical trial site in Klerksdorp supports research in Matlosana District, approximately 10km from Tshepong Hospital.

    Mentors

    • Luke Davis, MD

      Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, Implementation Science Track

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    GHES Alumni

    • Ann Johnson
      Ms. Johnson spent her fellowship year at the Aurum Institute in Johannesburg under the mentorship of Salome Charalambous, MBChB, MSc, PhD and Luke Davis, MD. Her research focused on improving the implementation of tuberculosis preventive therapy for people living with HIV in South Africa. Ms. Johnson is currently an MD/PhD student at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine. Her career goal is to use implementation science to address health inequities in resource-constrained settings.
    • Tonderai Mabuto
      Dr. Mabuto will spend his fellowship year at the Aurum Institute in South Africa under the mentorship of Salome Charalambous, MBChB, PhD and Luke Davis, MD. His research will focus on evaluating the organizational culture of primary health clinics to support quality improvement efforts in South Africa's HIV programs. Dr. Mabuto is a Senior Scientist at the Aurum Institute. Following the completion of his doctorate studies, he decided to focus his career on implementation science research and program evaluations, as these are key areas that are relevant to transforming how HIV programs improve the outcomes of people living with HIV in underserved areas and among populations at risk of being left out of country responses. His overall goal is to conduct contextually-relevant and pragmatic research that improves the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of interventions into routine primary healthcare programs.
    • Dylan Maghini
      Dr. Maghini will spend her fellowship year at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa under the mentorship of Scott Hazelhurst, PhD and Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD. Her research will focus on determining risk factors for HIV-associated comorbidity development in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Maghini is a researcher at Stanford University. She aims to lead a research team that leverages equitable partnerships to study human genomics in a global health context and to inform and advocate for local and international policy changes. Her research experiences in genomics led her to more broadly consider the applications of -omics research in addressing pressing issues in global health. Her graduate studies in data science components of global health shaped her appreciation for the importance of community-engaged and equitable global research.