Group leader: Clive Gray

Clive Gray


Clive Gray

Phone: +27 21 406 6356

Office: Falmouth Bldg 3.25 (entrance 2, use lift to floor 3)

Projects in the HIV Immunology Group focus on different properties of T cells, the epitopic regions that are recognized during early infection, how they contribute to homeostatic balance and ultimately how this balance is disrupted upon HIV exposure and infection. The projects are highly collaborative within the IDM/UCT and across multiple international groups and the overall focus is on defining biological risk factors for HIV acquisition.

An example is the Male Mucosal Immunity Study, which looks at understanding immunity in the foreskin and mechanisms leading to susceptibility or protection to HIV infection.  Foreskins are being collected from 150 males between 14-25 years of age to investigate HIV target cell availability in this tissue and how these are modulated by sexually transmitted infections. This is an EDCTP funded project along with Jo-Ann Passmore (UCT), Doug Wilson (Edendale Hospital, KZN), Marcus McGilvray (Whizzkids United, KZN), Robin Shattock (UCL, London), Tom Hope (NWU, Chicago), Francesca Chiodi (Karolinska, Sweden).

A further example is understanding altered immunity to various EPI vaccines in HIV exposed uninfected children and how disrupted T cell immunity affects the ability to respond to immunogens. This is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) along with Heather Jaspan (UCT and Seattle Children’s Research Institute), Alashl’e Abimuku (Jos, Nigeria), Ken Rosenthal (McMaster University, Canada), Bill Cameron (Ottawa Research Institute, Canada).

Projects include:

  • Innate, adaptive and mucosal immune responses in infants: a human model to understand correlates of immune protection.
  • Mechanisms of altered Immunity in HIV Exposed uninfected children
  • Factors affecting HIV susceptibility in the adolescent genital tract.
  • Characterization of virus and host immune responses in synovial fluid of children with HIV arthropathy.
  • Renal transplantation in SA – using HIV-positive deceased donors for HIV-positive recipients.
  • HIV vaccine immunogen design – identification of T cell epitopes associated with control of viral replication in Indian and SA HIV-I infected individuals.

 

Clive Gray - Google Scholar

 

Recent publications

  1. Christophe Toukam Tchakoute; Anneke C. Hesseling; Elvis B. Kidzeru; Hoyam Gamieldien; Jo-Ann S. Passmore; Christine E Jones; Clive M. Gray; Donald L. Sodora; Heather B. Jaspan. Delaying BCG vaccination until 8 weeks of age results in robust BCG-specific T cell responses in HIV-exposed infants. Journal of Infectious Diseases 2014; doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu434
  2. Rametse CL, Olivier AJ, Masson L, Barnabas S, McKinnon LR, Ngcapu S, Liebenberg LJ, Jaumdally SZ, Gray CM, Jaspan HB, Passmore JA. Role of Semen in Altering the Balance Between Inflammation and Tolerance in the Female Genital Tract: Does it Contribute to HIV Risk? Viral Immunol. 2014 (In Press).
  3. Kidzeru, E., AC Hesseling, JS Passmore, L Myer, H Gamieldien, C Toukam Tchakoute, CM Gray, DL Sodora and HB Jaspan. In-utero Exposure to Maternal HIV Infection Alters T cell Immune Responses to Vaccination in HIV-uninfected Infants. AIDS. 2014;28(10):1421-30
  4. Katherine M Young, Clive M Gray, Linda-Gail Bekker. Is Obesity a Risk Factor for Vaccine Non-Responsiveness? PloS One. 2013;8(12):e82779
  5. Catherine Riou, Wendy A. Burgers, Koleka Mlisana, Richard Koup, Mario Roederer, Salim Abdool Karim, Carolyn Williamson and Clive M. Gray. Frequency, functional ability and specificity of HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses differentially influence HIV viral set point. J Virol. 2014;88(3):1819-24