Rate My Professor Rachael Dangarembizi

Rachael Dangarembizi is an Associate Professor at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town. She serves as a neuroinfections researcher in the Division of Physiological Sciences, Department of Human Biology, in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research centres on the neuroimmune response to neglected fungal infections of the brain, with a particular emphasis on cryptococcal meningitis. She leads the CryptoLab, the first laboratory in Africa dedicated to studying the mechanisms of brain injury caused by fungal neuroinfections. Her work utilises rodent models and organotypic brain slice cultures from clinical biospecimens to investigate neuroinflammatory mechanisms, and she collaborates with the CMM AFRICA Medical Mycology Research Unit to examine host-pathogen interactions.

She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of the Witwatersrand, where her doctoral research examined immune-to-brain communication and inflammatory signalling during infections. As an early-career researcher, she established her independent laboratory shortly after completing her doctorate and has since built a research group focused on advancing understanding of neurological damage in neurocryptococcosis. Dangarembizi has received the TW Kambule-NSTF Award: Emerging Researcher in recognition of her contributions to African-led neuroscience research. She contributes to capacity building in African neuroscience through leadership roles, including as Chair of the Southern African Neuroscience Society, and participates in initiatives aimed at strengthening local expertise and infrastructure for brain health research.