South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI)

General information

The South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) is a research group at the University of Cape Town.

SATVI's vision is "A World Without TB", while our mission is "Innovative And High-Quality TB Vaccine Research In Africa, To Impact The Global Epidemic". Vaccines prevent disease, while drugs treat disease. An effective TB vaccine has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives globally.

To achieve our mission, we have been testing 6 new TB vaccine candidates in 15 completed or ongoing clinical trials. Among these, the first successful completion of an efficacy trial of a new TB vaccine, MVA85A, in nearly 50 years has been a prominent achievement.

We also address other critical clinical, epidemiological, immunological and human genetic and human genetic questions in TB vaccine development. A large focus of this research is on identification of markers in blood to indicate whether a person is at risk of developing, or protected against, TB disease.

SATVI is the largest dedicated TB vaccine research group on the African continent. Our success is evident from manuscripts published in high impact journals, funding support from multiple international funding agencies, invited presentations at international conferences and representation on multiple international policy bodies.