Prof. Adrian Egli

Adrian Egli is Professor and Director at the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich. He received his MD in 2004 and his PhD in 2008 with summa cum laude from the University of Basel focusing on viral epitope mapping. He then did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta in Canada from 2011 to 2012, focusing on the immune responses against viruses. Back in Switzerland, he switched his research more to risk assessments of pathogens combining different -omics technologies. He is a co-founder of the Swiss Pathogen Surveillance Platform and the Personalized Swiss Sepsis Study, both networks of academic centers using large datasets of whole genome sequencing data to understand transmission and pathogenicity.

Dr. Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi

Dr. Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi qualified as a Medical Practitioner with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) in 1983 from the University of Natal and later practised in various hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo until April 1994. He served in leadership positions in various mass democratic movement structures before the unbanning of the ANC in 1990. These include the NEC member of the United Democratic, Chairperson of the Sekhukhune Advice Office, Deputy Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) in the then Northern Transvaal, Head of the ANC Elections Commission for Limpopo Province, and the list goes on. Currently, Dr Motsoaledi is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee. Dr Motsoaledi served as a Member of the Limpopo Provincial Executive Council (MEC) under various portfolios or departments, including Education, Transport, Agriculture, Land and Environment, between 1994 and 2009. He is the former and current Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa. He is the longest-serving Health Minister since the dawn of democracy in South Africa. He was previously Minister of Home Affairs from 30 May 2019 to 19 June 2024. On the 3rd of July 2024, President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa appointed Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as the Minister of Health in South Africa.

Prof. Koleka Mlisana

Professor Koleka Mlisana is the Chief Executive Officer of the NHLS. Before her appointment she served as the Executive Manager: Academic Affairs, Research & Quality Assurance at the NHLS, from July 2018 to April 2024. Prior to this, she was the Head of Dept of Medical Microbiology at UKZN/IALCH. Her over 20year period of research and academia was spent in HIV pathogenesis and prevention research as well as sexually transmitted infections and genital inflammation research at the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA); as Head of Microbiology, Prof Mlisana broadened her research to include TB diagnostics; drug resistant TB; antimicrobial resistance and recently COVID-19 related research.

She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has mentored numerous young scientists. She has supervised many Master’s and PhD students and trained numerous registrars in medical microbiology.

Prof Mlisana has been a member of various Boards including Medical and Dental Board of the HPCSA (current); SA MRC; SANAC and NHLS. She has served on the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on Antimicrobial Resistance and recently co-chaired the MAC on COVID-19. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).