Dr Linda Boloko has been awarded the Professor Bongani Mayosi Netcare Clinical Scholarship for 2021. This scholarship will support his PhD research for the next 3 years. Dr Boloko obtained his MBChB from UCT in 2010. He was a Medical Officer and then Registrar in the Department of Medicine at GSH between 2014 and 2019. In 2019 he obtained his FCP from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa and in 2020 completed his MMed at UCT. He received the Department of Medicine Mediclinic Excellence Award in 2019. He initiated his PhD research in 2020 supported by a fellowship award from UCTs Fogarty HIV-associated TB Training Programme for that year. He is currently a supernumerary consultant in the Department of Medicine and contributed to the clinical service response during the COVID-19 surge in mid-2020.

Dr Boloko will conduct his PhD research within the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa) at UCT supervised by Professor Graeme Meintjes and Dr David Barr (University of Liverpool). His project will be nested within a Wellcome-funded randomized-controlled clinical trial (NEW STRAT-TB) which is investigating novel treatment strategies for patients admitted with disseminated HIV-associated TB. His focus will be to investigate the effect of these novel strategies on the host immune response. He is also conducting a separate 14-day study to evaluate the effect of standard TB treatment on potential microbial biomarkers of disseminated TB to assess their utility as indicators of treatment response. He has also conducted a study examining the sensitivity, diagnostic yield and role as a prognostic and pathophysiological biomarker of blood Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra in this patient population. This has been submitted for publication.

Professor Mayosi’s leadership and the example he set of academic and clinical excellence continue to be a source of inspiration for Dr Boloko, making the award of this scholarship a particularly special honour for him.

Dr Linda Boloko with his PhD supervisor, Professor Graeme Meintjes, working in the COVID-19 service at GSH.