Dr Gerald Chege is an in vivo Specialist Scientist at the Primate Unit and Delft Animal Centre (PUDAC) of the South African Medical Research Council SAMRC). He is also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He received his Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and MSc in Animal Physiology from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and a PhD in Medical Virology from UCT. He has also worked as research scientist for nine years at the Institute of Primate Research in Nairobi, Kenya before relocating to South Africa.

 Before joining PUDAC in March 2018, he worked for 11 years as an academic Research Officer at UCT. During his employment at UCT, he served as a member of the Animal Research Ethics Committee at the Faculty of Health Sciences (2008-20012) and the Institutional Scientific Review Committee of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) of UCT.  He has participated in mentorship of several postgraduate students and has co-authored over 20 scientific articles in peer-reviewed international journals.

 Dr Chege is an NRF-rated researcher and his research is focused on HIV vaccine development and the use of nonhuman primate models in research on tropical infectious diseases. Working with local and national scientists in the field of HIV research, his current focus is aimed at establishing and optimizing the rhesus monkey model for HIV vaccine and related research.  He closely collaborates with key international researchers in this field. Gerald is a member of South African Immunology Society (SAIS) and South African Association for Laboratory Animal Science (SAALAS).