Digby Warner

Member, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town

Research in the MMRU is focused on aspects of mycobacterial physiology and metabolism that are of relevance to new tuberculosis (TB) drug discovery, drug resistance and, more recently, TB transmission.

The Unit currently comprises senior scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and PhD and MSc students, and is supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under the TB Drug Accelerator programme, the Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships (SHIP) initiative of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) USA, the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, and the Research Council of Norway. As a Unit that receives funding through two major grants from the South African government, research capacity development forms a key focus of the laboratory's work.

KEY EXPERTISE: Molecular mycobacteriology and imaging; mycobacterial physiology, in particular the mechanisms and regulation of DNA repair and replication in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and their role in the emergence of drug resistance, the physiological consequences of drug resistance, and the role of vitamin B12 and related co-factors in mycobacterial pathogenesis.