Lindi Masson

Lindi is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the HIV, Inflammation and Microbiome Working Group at the Burnet Institute in Australia. She also leads a research group in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), is an Associate Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at UCT, Honorary Scientist at the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Monash University in Australia. Lindi has been involved in HIV and genital microbiome and immunology research for 14 years. The primary focus of her research is to understand the factors associated with risk of HIV acquisition and adverse reproductive outcomes in women and to develop tools to reduce this risk. As part of this work, Lindi is co-developer of the Genital Inflammation Test (GIFT), a low cost point-of-care test that detects biomarkers of inflammation in women with asymptomatic infections who are at high risk of HIV and pregnancy complications. She has contributed to 45 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and holds one international patent. Lindi is an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator award recipient and her work is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, South African Medical Research Council Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships and Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research.