Dr. Zivanai Cuthbert Chapanduka (Zi) is a Haematological Pathologist, currently head of the Division of Haematopathology at the Tygerberg NHLS/Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Cape Town. He has been in the healthcare industry since 1980, starting as student Medical Laboratory Technologist. Zi has worked at various points as a Clinical and/or Pathology Haematologist, Deputy Medical Director, Chief of Pathology, Medical, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Director, and Chief Executive Officer of a Pharmaceutical and Consultancy start-up, among other Leadership roles. Zi has a wide range of experience and research interests in Haematology, Blood Transfusion, Business and Leadership. Since returning to academia, he has several complete and ongoing research projects including those with a business and administrative slant and recently, in COVID-19. Education of MMed students/registrars is Zi’s enduring passion. Outside work Zi is a father and grandfather, long distance runner, musician, composer, and writer of poetry and prose. He has a keen interest in History.

Professor Jacqueline Goedhals (MBChB, MMed, DTM&H, MSc Med Sci [Cytopathology], PhD) is Head of the Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of the Free State and National Health Laboratory Service, Bloemfontein. She has an interest in Paediatric Pathology and gestational trophoblastic disease and is also involved in research on paragangliomas and HIV related malignancies.

Prof. Mary Gulumian is Head of the Toxicology Research Projects, National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH). She also holds an honorary Professorial post in the Haematology and Molecular Medicine Department, the University of the Witwatersrand where she presents courses on Health Risk Assessment and supervises postgraduate students. She has also been appointed as an Extraordinary Professor at the North West University for her efforts in organizing workshops on Health Risk assessment. She is the founder member and the past President of the Society for Free Radical Society of South Africa (SFRR-SA), the founder member and President of the Toxicology Society of South Africa (TOXSA), and the founder member and President of the Society of Risk Analysis (SRA)-Africa. She served in the Executive Committee of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX). She was a member of the final review board of WHO Concise International Chemical Assessment Documents (CICAD) publications on number of toxic compounds.

She currently represents South Africa in the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials as well as serves on Expert Technical Committee for WG3 of ISO/TC 229 on nanotechnologies. Nationally, in her capacity as the President of TOXSA, Professor Gulumian is involved in the registration of Toxicologists in South Africa and in setting up curricula necessary for this registration, and a Council member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP). Her research interests include hazard identification and communication as well as elucidation of mechanisms of toxicity of micro and nano particles. She has authored and co-authored numerous scientific publications on this topic and made great number of keynote and invited presentations at local and overseas conferences. She has also provided expert consultation to industry and government departments on the toxicity of chemicals in the working and ambient environments. Professor Gulumian is also a member of the Editorial Board of the journal of Human and Experimental Toxicology (HET) and the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology (PFT), and also the Associate Editor of the journal Inhalation Toxicology.

Dr. Marvin Hsiao is a Principal Pathologist and Senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town. He is a trained clinical virologist with a strong public health research interest. Prior to the local COVID-19 epidemic, his research was focused on the delivery priority diagnostic services for public health care in South Africa and the evaluation of novel diagnostic modalities.

He is passionate about the teaching and training of registrars and intern medical scientists in Virology which is his key training responsibility in the division. In the past year, like many virologists across the world, he spent most of the time guiding, implementing and overseeing SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing locally. He also enjoys working with clinical and public health colleagues in facilitating clinical research to characterize clinical, epidemiological, immunological and virological aspects of COVID-19.

Prof. Amanda Krause is a Medical Geneticist and currently Head of the Division of Human Genetics, NHLS, and School of Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand. Her major roles are to assess and counsel patients in Genetic Clinics, to supervise the genetics molecular diagnostic service, to teach and train medical genetics to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and to conduct research aimed at understanding the molecular basis of genetic disease in South Africa, to improve diagnostic testing and patient care. Professor Krause has published over 75 original articles in scientific journals, 3 book chapters, and has presented at more than 150 national and international conferences. She has supervised over 25 PhD, MSc and MMed students. She is currently a Senator of the College of Medical Genetics in South Africa and Chair of the Genetic Expert Committee at the NHLS.

Dr. Amir Afrogheh ( BChD, MSc, MChD, PhD, IFCAP ) is a Principle Specialist/Head and Neck Pathologist at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). Amir is the first oral pathologist to graduate from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital in June 2015 with a fellowship in Head and Neck Pathology. He is an international fellow of the College of American Pathologists, and a member of the Endocrine Pathology Society. He has been a regular invited speaker at major national and international pathology meetings. Amir has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in reputed international journals and conferences and has authored several chapters in pathology books. Thyroid/oral cytopathology, HPV-induced cancers of the head and neck, molecular pathogenesis of adenoid cystic carcinoma are his main areas of research interest. In recognition of his work, he has received numerous awards and prizes, including International Academy of Pathology ROC Kaschula award, best early career research award, and the US best research award. He was one of five cancer researchers in the country, nominated for the prestigious Oettlé Memorial Award of the Cancer Association of South Africa in 2019.

Dr. Babatyi Innocentia Malope-Kgokong is a National Manager for Academic Affairs and Research (AAR) for the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). She served as a member of the National Health Research Committee (NHRC) appointed by the Minister of Health (2017 – 2020), the Health Professional Council of South Africa - Committee for Medical Scientists, member of the Clinical Trials Group Review Task Team and the National Conditional Grants Task Team. Dr Malope-Kgokong has obtained her PhD in Community Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has worked in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, Fredericks; USA and the National Cancer Registry, New South Wales, Sydney in Australia. She has also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Policies from the University of London (CeFIMS) and an MSc (Cum Laude) and BSc in Medical Laboratory Sciences majoring in Haematology from the University of Limpopo (UL). She published more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles as first and co-author. She held academic positions at the following institutions - University of Limpopo (UL), University of Johannesburg (UJ) and as an Epidemiologist and Data Manager at the Clinical HIV Research Unit, at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Associate Professor Mayaphi is a clinical virologist and head of the Department of Medical Virology at University of Pretoria and National Health Laboratory Service – Tshwane Academic Division (NHLS-TAD). He is actively involved in under-graduate and post-graduate teaching and training, and in provision of Virology laboratory services. His research work is focused HIV and related opportunistic infections; and has previously worked as a sub-investigator in various phase I – III vaccine trials while at Perinatal HIV Research Unit. He has also been involved in supporting the National Department of Health on developing national guidelines in his area of expertise.

Elizabeth Mayne is a specialist haematologist and pathologist with a special interest in immunology. To advance immunology within South Africa, she has established specialist laboratory services in immunophenotyping, cytometry and histology and immunohaematology at the National Health Laboratory Service which provides diagnostic support to a large geographic area including 6 of the 9 provinces in South Africa and neighbouring countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a national expert on flow cytometry and is extensively involved with training scientists, medical students and residents in pathology both from South Africa and from other countries in the African continent and has supervised a number of research projects. She has been involved in national policy formulations for pathology and is committed to providing affordable pathology health care to the largest number of Africans. She is a member of the executive of the South African Immunological Society and of the National Expert Committee on Immunology. In addition to her work in research and routine immunopathology, Dr Mayne is principal investigator of the CLS biorepository and in this capacity has been involved in investigation of non-communicable diseases as a member of the H3 Africa consortium. Dr Mayne is also involved in a number of research projects examining HIV-associated conditions including HIV-associated malignancies, HIV-associated non-communicable diseases and opportunistic infections including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Dr Mayne is currently completing her doctoral thesis in vascular dysfunction in HIV.

Shaheed Vally Omar MSc(Med) PhD(Med), is a Medical Scientist with specialization in Microbiology, focusing on Mycobacterium tuberculosis research since his post-graduate training. He currently leads the following scientific programmes at the Centre for Tuberculosis, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; diagnostic evaluations for both active and latent disease state, drug resistance determination and surveillance, molecular epidemiology of drug resistance tuberculosis and the application of novel technologies for these purposes. He further is the lead scientist of the National TB Reference Laboratory as well as the WHO TB Supranational Laboratory Network.

Dr. Omar has been instrumental in the establishment and implementation of molecular-based applications at the Centre, which shaped capacity to perform molecular typing and Next-Generation Sequencing. His current research focus includes; evaluation of the new technologies for detection and drug resistance prediction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, establishment of breakpoints and critical concentrations for diagnostic laboratory phenotypic drug susceptibility testing of new and repurposed drugs, surveillance, emergence and evolution of drug resistance to these novel drugs, the identification of genetic correlates/markers associated with drug resistance and a survey on latent TB infection in Health Care Workers in South Africa.

He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications amongst them papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Infectious Disease and Nature Communications. In addition, he has participated as a presenter or invited speaker at over 60 local and international conference preceding. He further serves as a peer reviewer for several accredited journals.

His collaborations are both local and international and is currently a Principal Investigator for South Africa on several studies contributing to the development on novel strategies for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and drug resistance detection and control of the burden of disease. He is member on the Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: An International Consortium (CRyPTIC) and Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHAGE consortium), which focuses on operationalizing next-generation sequencing for diagnostic and surveillance applications. He has been selected to form part of the Expert Panel and Technical Expert Group advising in his area of expertise for the Foundation for New Innovative Diagnostics and the World Health Organization, respectively.

Dr. Tebogo Pheeha is a Haematopathologist based at NHLS Polokwane Laboratory and the University of Limpopo. She has been practicing as a haematopathologist since 2001. She started work as a regional pathologist for the East and West Rand region of Gauteng, based at Hellen Joseph NHLS Laboratory, from 2001 to 2003. From 2003 to 2007 she worked for the Namibia Institute of Pathology as a consultant pathologist. She was appointed consultant pathologist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Laboratory from 2008 until 2011. From 2012- 2014, she was a Regional Pathologist for SEKWE Region based at NHLS Tambo Memorial. She was appointed NHLS Polokwane Laboratory in 2015 and worked for the Limpopo/Mpumalanga Region and was jointly appointed at the University of Limpopo in 2016. She is involved in teaching and training medical technologists, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. She has played a key role in putting systems in place for supporting regional and district laboratories and improving the quality of services delivered by the NHLS. As a regional pathologist, she coordinated the NHLS Gauteng Outreach Programme and played a vital role as liaison between the NHLS and District Family Medicine physicians. She is interested in operational research and has been involved with research work on Multiple Myeloma, MTB, and Leukaemia. She is currently supervising postgraduate students and is a collaborator on other projects.

Prof. Komala Pillay is the Head of Division of Anatomical Pathology at the National Health Laboratory Services and University of Cape Town, Groote Schuur Hospital and Red Cross Children’s Hospital. She qualified as a pathologist in 2004 and practiced as the paediatric pathologist at Red Cross Children's hospital from 2007-2019.

Dr. Yogandree Ramsamy (MBChB, MMedPath(Micro), FCPath(SA)Path), is a Senior Pathologist (Medical Microbiology) at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). In 2018, she was awarded the Institut Mérieux-ICAN Young Investigator Award in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She is the 2019 recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award and the SEDRIC-Wellcome Trust Travel Scholarship. Dr Ramsamy is currently a member of several local and international committees related to Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) and Infection Prevention and Control, including the International Society for Chemotherapy – Infection Control Working Group, British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, ICAN and SAASP. Appointed by the Head of Health in KZN to serve on the KZN Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Committee, Dr Ramsamy engages with various stakeholders to promote the concept of AMS within the KZN public health sector in line with the South African National AMR Strategy. Also a lecturer and currently pursuing a PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal reviewing Carbapenam-Resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) in a One Health perspective, Ramsamy’s Master’s focused on AMR, AMS and surveillance in the South African landscape. Her keen research interest in AMR and AMS has culminated in original research generating several publications + local and international conference presentations.

Dr. Karen Shires is a joint staff principal Medical scientist/Associate Professor in the Division of Haematology, Dept of Pathology, UCT and NHLS. Dr Shires is a molecular biologist and is currently in charge of the research and development of Molecular Haematology testing for the NHLS at GSH. Being a joint staff scientist has allowed Dr Shires to develop novel approaches in the research environment and then apply them in the diagnostic field. Her research focus is on the development of novel molecular tools to diagnose and monitor minimal residual disease in Multiple Myeloma and Myeloid malignancies. This has predominately focused on the use of cancer/testis antigens as biomarkers, which through the use of both flow cytometry and quantitative multiplex PCR are showing promising potentials as biomarkers of myeloma.

Prof. Donald Tanyanyiwa PhD Genetics UCT, MMed UCT, FCPath (SA), FCPath (ECSA), FMLSc, MBChB. Head of Chemical Pathology and Cytogenetics at DGMAH. Senior Honorary lecturer at The University of the Witwatersrand. Honorary lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe College of Medicine. Consultant-in-charge, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital Chemical Pathology-: Revived routine IEM diagnostic service with MRC GC machine (2005-2006). Consultant-in-charge, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Chemical Pathology –largest laboratory in South Africa (2007 to 2019). Established the largest and ideal point of care testing at the hospital and surrounding clinics. Established researcher with several publications in non-communicable diseases especially dyslipidaemia in the African population. First and only recipient from Africa of the HEART UK first prize- 2013. Member of the Medical and Dental Professions Council of Zimbabwe. Member of the Health Professions Council of Namibia Founder member of College of Pathologist of East Central and Southern Africa Member of American Association of Biochemistry. Zimbabwe Association of Clinical Biochemists - Scientific and Research Officer

Prof. Andrew Whitelaw worked as a consultant pathologist in the Division of Clinical Microbiology at Groote Schuur Hospital / University of Cape Town from 2003 – 2012, and in December 2012 took up the post of Head of Division of Medical Microbiology at the University of Stellenbosch / Tygerberg Hospital. His early research revolved around the molecular characterization of Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) in members of the Enterobacteriaceae, and he has been involved in several studies and activities related to antibiotic resistance and infection control over the last decade, both for community as well as hospital-acquired pathogens. Most relevant among these would be his involvement in the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme (SAASP), The Infection Control Society of Southern Africa, and the SA Ministerial Advisory Committee on AMR. His ongoing research interests focus on antimicrobial resistance in Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus aureus, including molecular epidemiology and mechanisms of resistance as well as clinical impact and control of AMR and HAIs.