DSTI/NRF SARChI Chair · UWC School of Pharmacy
We engineer nanoparticles to treat tuberculosis — activating the immune system, delivering drugs to the lungs, and crossing the barriers that keep current therapies from finishing the job.
The laboratory
A nanomedicine research lab in Cape Town, South Africa. Our focus is therapeutic nanomedicines for infectious diseases, with particular attention to tuberculosis.
We design particles that target macrophages — the host cells where Mycobacterium tuberculosis hides. Those particles can carry antibiotics, and they can also switch the immune cell itself into a hostile environment for the bacterium. Kick, then punch.
Led by Professor Admire Dube, DSTI/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Nanomedicine and Infectious Diseases, the group sits in the School of Pharmacy at UWC and collaborates across South Africa and internationally. There is a high translational focus: dosage forms and delivery approaches, not only particles in a dish.
Programmes
01
Nanoparticle immunotherapies for drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis.
02
Dry-powder systems that put treatment in the lung, where TB lives.
03
How nanoparticles talk to macrophages in the context of infection.
04
Synthesis and evaluation of nanoparticles for infectious-disease drugs.
The group
Professor Dube and Dr Mellisa Chikukwa lead a laboratory of postdoctoral fellows, PhD candidates and MSc students working across host-directed therapy, pulmonary delivery and formulation science.
Latest paper
Bekale, R.B., Maphasa, R.E., D’Souza, S., Hsu, N.J., Walters, A., Okugbeni, N., Kinnear, C., Jacobs, M., Sampson, S.L., Meyer, M., Morse, G.D. and Dube, A.
ACS Infectious Diseases, 11(3), 610–625.Positions
The lab trains MSc, PhD and postdoctoral scientists in nanomedicine for infectious disease. If you have a specific idea or fellowship in mind, write to Prof Dube.