Page 81 - SAMRC Annual Report 2024-2025

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS UNDER THIS PROGRAMME

Antibody Immunity
Research Unit

Unit director:
Prof. Penny Moore
pennym@nicd.ac.za

Advancing Research Priorities: this grant and serving as protocol co-chair on the first
Strategic Objectives and Impact discovery medicine trial, which will be conducted in
2025. In the last year, we have generated pre-clinical
During 2024, The Antibody Immunity Research data for our first vaccine candidate, worked closely
Unit (AIRU) continued to make key contributions with international collaborators to implement B-cell
to HIV research with less of a focus on SARS- analytics, and engaged in significant capacity
CoV-2 research. Two SAMRC-funded SARS-CoV-2 development across the continent.
grants were completed in December 2024. A major
emphasis of our HIV research was participation in
the BRILLIANT Consortium (BRinging Innovation
to cLinical and Laboratory research to end HIV In
Africa through New vaccine Technology), a multi-
disciplinary collaboration with partners from Nigeria,
Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia,
Mozambique, South Africa and Internationally. The
overall objective of developing and evaluating HIV
vaccine candidates emanating from the African
continent.

In preparation for the first trial planned for 2025,
AIRU worked to establish a B-cell analytics pipeline,
and the unit also worked on novel immunogens for
future clinical trials. In addition, research activities on
other pathogens such as respiratory syncytial virus,
Ebola, influenza and cytomegalovirus continued.

Key Milestones and Achievements
In 2024, we acquired funding from USAID to develop
African immunogens and test experimental vaccines
for HIV across the BRILLIANT consortium, which spans
the African continent, with Prof Moore taking overall
responsibility for the immunogen design aspects of

SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2024-25 79