Marieke Van Der Zalm Stellenbosch University

I am an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Child Health at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. I have almost a decade of experience as an investigator working on TB diagnostic and treatment studies at the Desmond Tutu TB centre (DTTC), Stellenbosch University, South Africa. During my early years at the DTTC, I worked as a trial clinician and co-investigator on a phase II TB vaccine trial, a phase III TB treatment shortening trial (SHINE) and a large pediatric TB diagnostic study. I have had the privilege to be able to work with world-leading scientists in pediatric TB (Drs. Anneke Hesseling, Simon Schaaf, Robert Gie, Pierre Goussard). Since 2020, I am the principal investigator of an ongoing TB diagnostic cohort called “Umoya” in Cape Town South Africa, which is funded through an NIH-R01 (PI G Alter), an European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) senior career fellowship and an NIH-K43 emerging global leader award to investigate long-term consequences of TB in children. Currently, we enrolled over 450 children with suspected pulmonary TB and have a rich biorepository of samples stored for future analysis that includes serum, paxgene, saliva, urine and stool. During the COVID pandemic I have been actively involved in the response of the Paediatric Department to assist with Infection Prevention Control training of health care workers, contact tracing of health care workers and the development of a COVID research protocol that includes routine care surveillance and a prospective observational cohort. Currently, my COVID-19 work has been largely integrated in our TB diagnostic and lung health studies.