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Principal Investigator: Sikhulile Moyo
Organization: THE BOTSWANA HARVARD HEALTH PARTNERSHIP
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $136,460
Funding agency: John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences
Project Summary
Candidate: Dr Sikhulile Moyo is unwaveringly committed to an overarching career focused on contributing to
ending the HIV epidemic and related public health emergencies. He committed to a career focused on finding
cost-effective tools for estimating the impact of interventions and towards HIV cure research. He envisions
himself as a leader globally, in research aimed towards tracking and eliminating new HIV infections & towards
developing an HIV cure, working with researchers, program implementers and policy makers for rapid and
cost-effective evaluation of interventions. Dr Moyo’s 5-year career development plan is focused on three key
areas: phylogenetics, epidemiology and biostatistics; cross-sectional Incidence and Implementation; and HIV
cure & characterization of early founder viruses, and SARS-COV-2 genomics. In order to achieve his short-
and medium-term career objectives he seeks to: a) develop advanced methodologic and analytic skills in
molecular epidemiology, phylogenetic analysis and bioinformatics; b) expand laboratory expertise in real-time
high-throughput next generation sequencing and accurate and reliable quantification of proviral reservoirs for
advancing HIV cure studies, and c) strengthen leadership abilities particularly in managing large scientific
projects, population-level surveys, and diverse research teams with expertise in different fields, organizational
leadership and student research supervision. Training activities will encompass formal training and
coursework, practical application through the proposed research project, and direct mentorship from my highly
experienced mentorship and advisory team. These activities will draw on the strengths of the mentorship team
and leading research institutions with strong collaborative ties and have a record of mentoring young
investigators to R01 and independence.
Research: The study aims to introduce an innovative approach to estimating HIV incidence, which is very
important for national HIV programs / public health, and also for HIV prevention research, but can be
expensive and challenging to do. The specific aims are: 1) To assess adjusted viral diversity as a potential
biomarker of HIV incidence. 2) To refine results of serological screening in subsets of true- and false-recent
cases, and patients with established infection (ART-naïve and on ART), by adjusted viral diversity. We will test
whether viral diversity within the most informative regions across the HIV-1C genome adjusted for multiplicity
of transmission, recombination, and level of viral replication could be used to refine the results of serological
screening and improve specificity and sensitivity. We expect that the adjusted viral diversity within the most
informative regions will increase specificity and sensitivity in estimation of HIV incidence within the 4 subsets of
individuals targeted in this Aim to ≥95%. Establishing a cost-effective algorithm to estimate incidence is of
critical public health importance in low resource settings.
Terms: <2019 novel corona virus><2019 novel coronavirus><2019-nCoV><AIDS Virus><AIDS prevention><Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Virus><Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Virus><Adopted><Advisory Committees><African><Algorithms><Area><Assay><Bio-Informatics><Bioassay><Bioinformatics><Biological Assay><Biological Markers><Biometrics><Biometry><Biostatistics><COVID-19 virus><COVID19 virus><CoV-2><CoV2><Country><Cross Sectional Analysis><Cross-Sectional Analyses><Cross-Sectional Studies><Cross-Sectional Survey><DNA Recombination><Data><Development><Development Plans><Disease Frequency Surveys><Epidemic><Epidemiology><Evaluation><Exclusion><Genetic Recombination><Genome><Genomics><Genotype><HIV><HIV Genome><HIV Infections><HIV Prevention><HIV-1><HIV-1 genome><HIV-I><HIV/AIDS prevention><HIV1><HIV1 genome><HTLV-III Infections><HTLV-III-LAV Infections><Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1><Human Immunodeficiency Viruses><Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III Infections><Human immunodeficiency virus 1><Incidence><Individual><Infection><Institution><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Investigators><LAV-HTLV-III><Laboratories><Leadership><Length><Longitudinal Studies><Low-resource area><Low-resource community><Low-resource environment><Low-resource region><Low-resource setting><Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus><Measurement><Measures><Mentors><Mentorship><Methodology><Methods><Modeling><Molecular><Molecular Epidemiology><Monitor><NGS Method><NGS system><Non-Polyadenylated RNA><Outcome><Patients><Persons><Phylogenetic Analysis><Phylogenetics><Policy Maker><Population><PrEP><Prevention Research><Process><Public Health><R-Series Research Projects><R01 Mechanism><R01 Program><RNA><RNA Gene Products><Recombination><Research><Research Grants><Research Personnel><Research Project Grants><Research Projects><Research Specimen><Researchers><Resource-constrained area><Resource-constrained community><Resource-constrained environment><Resource-constrained region><Resource-constrained setting><Resource-limited area><Resource-limited community><Resource-limited environment><Resource-limited region><Resource-limited setting><Resource-poor area><Resource-poor community><Resource-poor environment><Resource-poor region><Resource-poor setting><Ribonucleic Acid><Role><SARS corona virus 2><SARS-CO-V2><SARS-COVID-2><SARS-CoV-2><SARS-CoV2><SARS-associated corona virus 2><SARS-associated coronavirus 2><SARS-coronavirus-2><SARS-related corona virus 2><SARS-related coronavirus 2><SARSCoV2><Sampling><Sensitivity and Specificity><Serology><Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome CoV 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Corona Virus 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Coronavirus 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-associated coronavirus 2><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related coronavirus 2><Severe acute respiratory syndrome associated corona virus 2><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2><Severe acute respiratory syndrome related corona virus 2><Specificity><Specimen><Students><Supervision><Survey Instrument><Surveys><Task Forces><Testing><Time><Training><Training Activity><Transmission><Uncertainty><Viral><Viral Genome><Virus><Virus Replication><Virus-HIV><Wuhan coronavirus><advisory team><analyzing longitudinal><antiretroviral therapy><antiretroviral treatment><application in practice><bio-informatics pipeline><bio-markers><bioinformatics pipeline><biologic marker><biomarker><career><career development><coronavirus disease 2019 virus><coronavirus disease-19 virus><cost><cost effective><developmental><doubt><epidemiologic><epidemiological><experience><genome sequencing><hCoV19><improved><innovate><innovation><innovative><interventional strategy><long-term study><longitudinal analysis><longitudinal outcome studies><longterm study><low income country><nCoV2><next gen sequencing><next generation sequencing><nextgen sequencing><potential biological marker><potential biomarker><practical application><pre-exposure prophylaxis><programs><prospective><public health emergency><response><scale up><screening><screenings><segregation><seroconversion><skills><social role><tool><training module><transmission process><trend><viral multiplication><viral replication><virus genome><virus multiplication>