the gem
Building Knowledge and Networks MIT, Harvard and UC Louvain scientists visit CERI, with a collaboration focus on one of the most complex and urgent challenges in reproductive health. text: Prof Lenine Liebenberg photo : Maambele Khosa
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n late October, the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University welcomed two internationally recognised computational scientists – Dr Joseph Elsherbini of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Ragon Institute
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and Dr Laura Symul, assistant professor of biostatistics at UC Louvain – along with members of their research teams. Their week-long visit, from October 27 to 31, marked an important milestone in CERI’s growing leadership in women’s health, microbiome science, and datadriven innovation across Africa.
The multidisciplinary collaboration between our groups focuses on one of the most complex and urgent challenges in reproductive health: understanding how host tissues and microbes interact in the female genital tract. This understanding forms the basis of our current joint projects, supported by the Gates