Professor Thesla Palanee-Phillips is Director of Clinical Trials and Lab Director at the Wits RHI Research Centre Clinical Research site. She is an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and holds a joint appointment as an Affiliate Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Prof Palanee-Phillips is a South African medical scientist whose research has focused on sexual and reproductive health with emphasis in the areas of biomedical HIV prevention with ARV based microbicides, vaginal rings, oral and injectable PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) as well as bacterial and viral STIs. Through this work, she and her team increase uptake of HIV/STI testing in marginalized populations including adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), men who have sex with men and trans and gender non binary populations. Trained as a medical laboratory scientist, she has expanded her expertise to include designing and implementing investigator initiated research and clinical trials, integrating complex laboratory components as well as qualitative, behavioural, and implementation science-framed questions into both clinical trials and investigator driven research. She has a particular interest in questions that bridge HIV prevention with sexual and reproductive health and barriers and facilitators that impact access to healthcare services.
She has expertise in conducting clinical trials and investigator driven research initiatives, leading a number of Phase 1/2/3 investigational new drug clinical trials, and being an NIH R34 and NIH R01-PI and awardee for her supported research projects. The R34 is exploring opportunities for STI self-testing and diagnosis to trigger PrEP restart in AGYW and the R01 is assessing opportunities to improve STI testing and treatment to reduce STI recurrence among a cohort of cisgender adolescent girls and young women in South Africa. In addition to her research, Prof Palanee-Phillips supervises postgraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Washington.
