About Us
Passionate and Caring Researchers
Our Vision
Improving Life Through Research
Our External Mission
Conducting community-partnered, innovative, ethical and multi-disciplinary research that influences knowledge and policy.
Our Internal Mission
Developing passionate, caring and empowered researchers working within the health development sector.
Empowering Communities
Through Knowledge and Care
The Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) is a leading research institution located in the heart of Soweto, South Africa, and is at the forefront of clinical research related to HIV and TB.
Our headquarters are in the campus of the world-renowned Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, with satellite research sites at Aeroton (Johannesburg South), Matlosana (North West Province), Botshabelo (Free State Province), and Vhembe and Polokwane (Limpopo Province).
Our vision is improving life through research and extends beyond the boundaries of traditional research. It encompasses research training, impacting on policy, and being advocates for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB).
Our Executive Team
Leading with Expertise
Prof Neil Martinson
Executive director
Leading groundbreaking research in HIV and TB across high-burden regions, especially South Africa. His work spans cohort studies, policy-shaping trials, and innovative diagnostics. He mentors emerging scientists and explores cancer, diabetes, and health technology. His studies have revealed overlooked populations with undiagnosed TB and early insights into HIV transmission and resistance.
After qualifying as a medical doctor from the University of the Witwatersrand, Dr Neil Martinson started a speciality in family medicine, and after two years of vocational training, started working as a GP locum until he found a position in the then Pretoria City Council in 1996, where he was allocated oversight of the TB control programme.
South Africa had just begun to implement WHO’s guidelines for TB control, which highlighted some of the shortcomings of TB treatment for Martinson. He would move to Johannesburg City Council about a year later, where he was involved in integrating primary healthcare with TB prevention and control, just as HIV was starting to really take hold.
That work led to an opportunity to do a master’s in public health at Johns Hopkins University in the US, and he returned to employment at the PHRU in January 2002 and has worked at the unit ever since. He has more than 20 years of managerial and research experience mainly in the fields of TB and HIV research.
He has also built a large research platform in Matlosana and Limpopo Province, both areas with an HIV/TB problem in South Africa. His current research thrust is measuring reductions in mortality, morbidity and transmission of TB.
Dr Avy Violari
Deputy Executive Director
Head of the Paediatric Research and Care programme at the PHRU and a fellow of FCPaed (SA). She has been working in the field of HIV for more than two decades and is the IMPAACT Soweto Clinical Research Site Leader.
Dr Avy Violari, FCPaed (SA) is the head of the Paediatric Research and Care programme at the PHRU and has worked in the field of HIV for more than two decades. She is the IMPAACT (International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network) Soweto Clinical Research Site Leader.
Dr Violari’s research focuses on the specific needs of perinatally infected and exposed children across the age spectrum, and she has a wealth of experience in dealing with many complex issues that HIV affected children face, including medical, ethical and social issues.
She has built a multidisciplinary team that includes four doctors, two research managers, a psychologist and a social worker; together they bring a depth of knowledge and experience that any study can draw support from. The research experience and expertise they have built over a period of 15 years, is able to operationally support the development and safe implementation of a Phase I, II or III trial in infants, children and adolescents.
Her work as a clinical researcher addresses questions in HIV-infected pregnant mothers, their infants and children, and includes evaluating the efficacy, safety and dosing of appropriate regimens in pregnant women and children from birth to adolescence. Other studies address questions in children living with HIV and children exposed to HIV perinatally such as safety and immunogenicity of vaccinations, immunologic profiles, and neuropsychological impairment in several hundred children.
She has been integrally involved in the design, implementation and analysis of several large multicentre trials. Two of these trials in particular, changed paediatric treatment policy and guidelines worldwide, while several others made significant contributions to the management of HIV in children.
Prof Glenda Gray
Non-Executive Director
An NRF A-rated scientist, the first female President and former CEO of the South African Medical Research Council. She trained as a medical doctor and paediatrician at the University of the Witwatersrand. She co-founded the PHRU with James McIntyre in January 1996.
MBBCh, FC Paed (SA), DSc (honoris causa, Simon Fraser University 2013), DSc (honoris causa, Stellenbosch University 2018), Honorary Doctorate in Law (Rhodes University, 2019)
Glenda Gray, an NRF A-rated scientist, is the first female President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council. Gray, who trained as a medical doctor and paediatrician at the University of the Witwatersrand, co-founded the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) with James McIntyre in January 1996 and she led it until March 2014.
As a clinical researcher, she is internationally known for her research in HIV vaccines, and interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. She is the co-principal investigator (PI) of the of the NIH-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and is responsible for the expansion of HIV vaccine research in Africa.
In 2002, she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for pioneering work done in the field of MTCT of HIV-1. She is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa, the African Academy of Science and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). She is also one of a handful of foreign associates of the USA National Academy of Medicine, of the National Academies of Science, and has served on their Global Health Board. She was the Chair for the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD).
Gray has also been awarded the IAPAC “Hero of Medicine” award for work done in the field of HIV treatment in children and adults. In 2009, McIntyre and Gray received the N’Galy-Mann lectureship in recognition of their HIV research contribution in South Africa. She has also been admitted into the American Academy of Microbiology in 2012. In 2013 she received the South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, granted by the president for achievements in the international area, which have served South Africa’s interest as well as the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership’s (EDCTP’s) outstanding African scientist award.
In 2017, she was listed amongst the Times 100 influential people in the world and in 2020, Forbes’ top 50 women in Africa. Her focus now is on capacity development in science, with a special focus on transformation and increasing diversity. For this, in 2018 she received the Regional World Academy of Science award for science capacity development in Africa.
As the COVID-19 pandemic developed, Gray was among the first to lead public discourse on the issue, and to move quickly to establish COVID-19 vaccine trials in South Africa. She served as a Protocol Co-Chair of the multi-country Ensemble Study investigating the single-dose Ad26.COV2.S vaccine as an emergency response intervention. When South Africa’s national vaccine roll-out faltered, she was able to negotiate a donation of 500,000 doses of the Ad26.CoV.2 vaccine before any emergency use authorisation was available and execute a phase 3B open-label study in health care workers, dubbed the Sisonke Study.
She has supported the expansion of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial research in South Africa and is supporting the clinical development of South Africa’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. She was also a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for COVID-19 (March–September 2020), and led the Research Sub-Committee.
Dr Lerato Mohapi
director
Distinguished HIV clinical investigator whose career in HIV/AIDS started in 1990 and spans community-based outreach, antiretroviral therapy access, clinical trials in HIV treatment, Tuberculosis, COVID-19, Hepatitis B and HIV Cure. She is widely published, and her work has contributed to advancing HIV research and care in low and middle-income settings.
Dr Lerato Mohapi has been an investigator with the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) for 15 years. She is the ACTG Soweto CRS leader in the current cycle and is the Karabelo CTU co-principal investigator (PI). She has published over 50 articles on the use of ARVs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including high impact journals such as the NEJM, Lancet and Lancet HIV.
Dr Mohapi has been involved in HIV work since 1990, starting out in a community-based HIV/AIDS prevention programme among gay men, commercial sex workers and the youth in inner city Johannesburg, reaching out to these communities wherever they could be found. She established and ran an after-hours STI clinic that offered HIV counselling and testing.
She conducted the first adult antiretroviral treatment trial at the PHRU in 1997 and has been an investigator in 56 HIV-related clinical trials, including 15 ACTG trials. She led a large antiretroviral treatment access programme at the PHRU supported by the South African Department of Health and USAID PEPFAR that initiated 957 HIV-infected adults on therapy in in eight months; in this role, she supported the treatment scale-up goals of the South African government.
Dr Ravindre Panchia
Director
Clinical research leader in HIV prevention whose stewardship of the Soweto HPTN site and co-leadership of South Africa’s CTU have driven inclusive study expansion, rigorous data oversight, and global performance standards across pivotal AIDS trials.
Dr Ravindre Panchia has led the Soweto HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) CRS since 2011. He has experience in the execution of the HPTN 052 study as the site principal investigator (PI), and led the HPTN CRS expansion into the Men who have sex with men (MSM) population in Soweto.
Dr Panchia has been a co-PI of the CTU with Dr Lerato Mohapi and Prof Glenda Gray since 2014, and they are jointly responsible for the administrative and financial oversight of the CTU.
Dr Panchia served as the Program Officer for the successful Comprehensive International Program for Research in AIDS in South Africa (CIPRA-SA) from 2005 to its successful completion in 2012. Responsibilities in managing the administrative component of this multi-project national study included oversight of the regulatory, quality assurance, statistical and data management departments of CIPRA-SA.
Dr Panchia also served as a member of the ACTG Performance Evaluation Committee (PEC) tasked with review of sites and studies to ensure efficient conduct of ACTG studies globally.
Dr Fatima Laher
Director: Vaccines Division
Medical doctor and researcher in infectious diseases. A widely published investigator, she was awarded as a Young Physician Leader by the Interacademy Medical Panel and has since gone on to be ranked in the top 1% of HIV vaccine experts worldwide.
Dr Fatima Laher is a medical doctor and researcher conducting trials into treating and preventing infectious diseases. She is the Director at the PHRU Vaccines Research Centre. Already at the beginning of her career, the InterAcademy Partnership named her as a Young Physician Leader. Dr Laher enjoys being a mixed methods researcher who conducts both quantitative and qualitative research in both biomedicine and socio-behavioural fields.
Prof Janan Dietrich
Director: Bio-Behavioural Research Division
Pioneering African behavioural scientist whose research integrates user-centered HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and digital innovation — leading multi-national projects and shaping global transdisciplinary research teams.
Professor Janan Dietrich has extensive experience in conducting youth-engaged sexual and reproductive health service implementation and research, with a successful track record in user-centred digital health solutions. She is one of a few South African researchers conducting research across the digital and mental health topics in South Africa.
She is a co-founder of the African Social Sciences Unit of Research and Evaluation (ASSURE), and leads multiple donor-funded projects (for example: USAID, BMGF, ECCTP) from concept to implementation with fiscal responsibility. She has held multiple local and international fellowships.
She is affiliated with the Health Systems Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and is the past Chair of the Southern African Social and Behavioural Group of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN).
Professor Dietrich’s digital health research projects with particular emphasis on adolescent girls and young women.
Fatima Mayat
Director: Clinical Operations and Strategic Development
A clinical research strategist and pharmacist whose leadership at PHRU’s NIH Clinical Trial Unit has advanced operational excellence in HIV and COVID-19 trials, blending global regulatory and quality management insight with deep local engagement across Africa’s research landscape.
Fatima Mayat studied pharmacy at the University of the Witwatersrand, thereafter focusing on clinical pharmacy. This included running the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Neonatal ICU Pharmacy, and Pharmacy Manager at the PHRU. She spent almost six years at PPD, a global contract research organisation, in roles such as senior CRA, trainer and auditor, primarily focusing on US NIH studies, especially involving HIV studies in sub-Saharan and east Africa.
In 2012 Fatima rejoined PHRU as Director: Clinical Operations and Strategic Development, overseeing several portfolios including pharmacy, regulatory, grants and community engagement. She is the current Clinical Trial Unit Coordinator for PHRU’s NIH Clinical Trial Unit, one of the largest global NIH units conducting HIV vaccine, prevention and therapeutic studies and more recently COVID-19 studies.
She has served on many NIH committees and protocol teams over the years and was on the HIVSA board as non-executive director. In 2021, Fatima joined the Sisonke Protocol Team in order to support functions for study implementation and oversight.
Anusha Nana
Director: Aeroton
Clinical pharmacy operations expert whose hands-on ingenuity in resource-limited settings has supported trial infrastructure development across South Africa and informed global standards for HIV research implementation.
When Anusha Nana qualified as a pharmacist in 1999, there was not yet a functional roll-out of ARVs in the country, and many South Africans were dying after contracting HIV/AIDS. She worked at a public hospital in Ermelo for some time, and seeing the lack of access to ARVs had a profound impact on her.
When the opportunity arose for her to work in a space that offered care for the community, she grabbed it. Her career in pharmacy operations ran parallel to South Africa’s electricity woes, and given the stringent requirements to run a good clinical trial, she had to – as she puts it – put away her pill counter and take out a tool belt.
This experience would stand her in good stead, because trial sponsors in the US used the experience she had gained in South Africa’s resource-limited setting to assess other sites and help them scale to the infrastructure required to run a trial.
Prof Kennedy Otwombe
Lead Biostatistician: Statistics Support Unit
A leading biostatistician whose prolific scholarship and passion for mentorship have strengthened research capacity in Africa, with over 140 publications and a career devoted to developing the next generation of data-driven health scientists.
Professor Kennedy Otwombe, who hails from Kenya, left school and registered at university with ambitions of being an art teacher. A close friend, however, convinced him to switch from art to science and focus on statistics, and while he did teach mathematics for six or seven months, he would return to university to pursue a master’s in mathematical statistics.
Thanks to a fellowship at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, he was exposed to biostatistics – a field where he says there is a severe shortage of capacity.
He joined PHRU in 2009, and has progressed through the ranks to associate professor, and has accumulated around 140 peer-reviewed publications. He also enjoys building capacity in the field, so part of his time is spent teaching, supervising master’s and PhD students, and training early career researchers in the PHRU to nurture their professional growth.
Dr Tumelo Moloantoa
Director: Matlosana
He oversees research operations and provides scientific leadership for clinical trials conducted throughout the North West Province. With over a decade of experience in the design, implementation, and oversight of clinical trials, his work has primarily focused on TB and HIV prevention and treatment. He is committed to improving public health through ethically sound and community-centred research practices.
Dr Tumelo Molantoa is a senior medical officer with vast experience in primary healthcare and TB/HIV in community setting. He has 10 years of experience working in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district, managing chronic diseases in adult population and mother and child health.
He joined PHRU-Matlosana Clinical Trials Unit in 2015 as a sub-investigator and later served as a principal investigator and a co-principal investigator in high-recruiting trials in vaccines, interventional trial, and TB-preventative trials.
His interest in administration and quality management plan led to his involvement in the onsite clinical studies management monitoring team, and he is currently a senior manager and a director for PHRU-Matlosana, where his responsibilities are to support IMPAACT/ACTG studies as a CRS Coordinator and ensure that all operations and stakeholder relationships are maintained
Ntombifuthi Melane
Operations Lead
An accomplished Operations Lead with over a decade of experience driving facilities maintenance excellence, streamlining strategic upgrades, and leading high-performing teams to deliver safe, compliant, and research-focused infrastructure solutions.
Highly motivated and results-driven Operations Lead with over 10 years of experience in overseeing the maintenance and operations of diverse properties. Proven ability to manage projects, negotiate contracts, and lead teams to achieve operational excellence. Successfully executed strategic upgrades and optimized maintenance schedules. Possesses strong customer services and technical skills in building systems and is skilled at ensuring compliance with safety regulations.
Guiding Principles / Values
Integrity, impact, excellence, accountability, empowerment, collaboration, knowledge generation, caring, community engagement, ethics.
