Rate My Professor Thesla Palanee-Philips

Professor Thesla Palanee-Phillips is Director of Clinical Trials and Laboratory Director at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) Research Centre Clinical Research Site. She is an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she holds the position of Reader, and maintains a joint appointment as Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle. A South African medical scientist, her research centres on sexual and reproductive health, with emphasis on biomedical HIV prevention, HIV treatment, sexually transmitted infections and contraceptives. Her contributions include work on antiretroviral-based microbicides, vaginal rings, oral and injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis, and bacterial and viral STIs. She has led or overseen multiple Phase I, II, III and open-label extension clinical trials and served as principal investigator or awardee on National Institutes of Health R01, R34 and R21 projects, including studies improving STI testing and expedited partner treatment among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa.

Professor Palanee-Phillips obtained a Master’s degree in Medical Science cum laude in December 1998 and a PhD in Physiology/Biochemistry in November 2004, both from the University of KwaZulu-Natal Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. She later completed an MSc in Clinical Trials through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in November 2015. Her earlier career included roles at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the Medical Research Council, and positions progressing from Technical Advisor to Director of Clinical Trials at Wits RHI since joining in 2009. She supervises postgraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Washington.