Dr Julian Scherer

PhD candidate

CHI research group: General Medicine & Global Health (GMGH) 
CHI membership: Affiliate member

Julian Scherer is a PhD student enrolled at the University of Cape Town and supervised by Prof. Friedrich Thienemann (CHI & Department of Medicine) and Prof. Michael Held (Division of Orthopaedic Surgery) and an Affiliated Member at the CHI. Julian is also a surgical registrar at the Department of Traumatology of the University Hospital Zurich. After conducting research on traumatic spinal disorders, his PhD now aims to better understand the pathogenesis of spinal TB and its distributional patterns. This includes the use of whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT performed at Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre (CUBIC) as a new diagnostic tool for disseminated TB and gene expression profiling, hypothesizing that isolated spinal TB has a distinct gene expression profile when compared to disseminated TB with spinal involvement. The results of this work aim to improve the understanding of the different manifestations of TB and to personalize TB therapy.

Research engagements:

  • Spinal TB
  • PET/CT and MRI imaging in TB
  • Gene expression analysis
  • Trauma surgery