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Robert Wilkinson

Professor Wilkinson is jointly appointed with Imperial College London and is predominantly based at the University of Cape Town where he is involved in a number of translational projects.

The laboratory programme in the UK investigates in vitro the mechanisms by which vitamin D metabolites modulate immunity to M. tuberculosis infection, and the analysis of clinical samples obtained from an ongoing clinical trial of adjunctive vitamin D in tuberculosis treatment. The programme will evolve to additionally consider the mode of action of corticosteroids in suppressing aberrant M. tuberculosis specific immunity as exemplified by the HIV-TB associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS).

In Cape Town we have assembled the world’s largest (> 300 cases) case series and specimen collection of TB-IRIS in the context of a placebo-controlled trial of corticosteroid therapy.

Figure 1

Shacks

The townships of the Cape Flats suffer a historically high incidence of tuberculosis greatly exacerbated recently by the arrival of the HIV epidemic in the Western Cape. HIV-TB interaction is the greatest public health problem in South Africa today.

Figure 2

Lymph node

Enlarged lymph nodes due to tuberculosis in a patient whose tuberculosis was resolving but became paradoxically worse due to restoration of pathological immune responses after introduction of anti-HIV treatment.

For more information about Professor Wilkinson's research in Cape Town, see Mycobacterial Immunology Group, University of Cape Town .

Selected publications

[Page last updated 15 May 2008]