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Unit Director SAMRC Centre for TB Research
Stellenbosch University, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), South Africa
Email: mjmarakalala@sun.ac.za
VALIDATE Role:
Network Investigator
Research Keywords:
TB Granulomas, Host Directed Therapies, Lung inflammation and Immunopathology
Biography:
Mohlopheni is currently the Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Centre for Tuberculosis Research at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He completed his PhD in Chemical Pathology at the University of Cape Town (2008), receiving the Bronte Stewart Research Prize for the most meritorious PhD thesis. He then completed a total of 8 year postdoctoral training; 4 years in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at UCT and 4 years in Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Between 2016 and 2019, he was a Senior Lecturer at UCT and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard. From 2019 until his recent appointment as the Unit Director of the SAMRC Centre for TB Research, he has been a Wellcome Trust International Fellow and Faculty member at Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) and an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL).
His laboratory’s primary interest is on infectious diseases, particularly immunopathogenesis of Tuberculosis, with an aim of developing host-directed therapies targeting mediators of lung damage. His other interests are in understanding strategies utilized by mycobacteria to survive various arms of the immune system. Work in his lab has been funded by grants from SA Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Related Websites:
SAMRC Centre for Tuberculosis
Key Publications:
- Mpotje T, Rajkumar-Bhugeloo K, Moodley D, Nargan K, Lawrence TK, Fisher KL, Maepa SW, Thambu K, Lumamba K, Majozi P, Rapulana AM, Parihar S, Naidoo T, Madansein R, Ndlovu H, Leslie A, Gordon S, Steyn A, Marakalala MJ. (2025) Targeting ALOX5/LTA4H driven granuloma caseation as a host-directed strategy for control of TB associated lung damage. bioRxiv; 2025. DOI: 10.1101/2025.02.27.640170.
- Rapulana AM, Mpotje T, Baiyegunhi OO, Ndlovu H, Smit TK, McHugh T, Marakalala MJ. (2024). Combined analysis of host IFN-γ, IL-2 and IP-10 as potential LTBI biomarkers in ESAT-6/CFP-10 stimulated blood. doi: 10.3389/fmmed.2024.1345510
- Samuels V, Mulelu AE, Ndlovu H, Marakalala MJ. (2024). Mycobacterial FtsEX-RipC interaction is required for normal growth and cell morphology in rifampicin and low-ionic- strength conditions. Microbiology spectrum. 10.1128/spectrum.02515-23
- Fisher KL, Moodley D, Rajkumar-Bhugeloo K, Baiyegunhi OO, Karim F, Ndlovu H, Ndung’u T, Marakalala MJ. Elevated IP-10 at the Protein and Gene Level Associates With Pulmonary TB. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol., 27 May 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.908144
- Marakalala MJ, Raju RM, Sharma K, Zhang YJ, Eugenin EA, Prideaux B, Daudelin IB, Chen P, Booty MG, Kim JH, Eum SY, Via LE, Behar SM, Barry III CE, Mann M, Dartois V, Rubin EJ. Inflammatory signaling in human Tuberculosis granulomas is spatially organized. Nature Medicine. 2016 Apr 4. 22 (5): 531-538
- Wilson GJ, Marakalala MJ*, Hoving JC, van Laarhoven A, Drummond RA, Kerscher B, Keeton R, van de Vosse E, Ottenhoff THM, Plantinga TS, Alisjahbana B, Govender D, Besra GS, Netea MG, Reid DM, Willment JA, Jacobs M, Yamasaki S, van Crevel R, Brown GD. CLECSF8 (CLEC4D) is an essential component of anti-mycobacterial immunity. Cell Host Microbe. 2015 Feb 11;17(2):252-9 (*co-first author)
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