10 Nov 2022

Dr Sikhulile Moyo, one of Botswana’s most prolific scientists, has once again been honoured for his contribution to medical research. 

On Tuesday, the multiple scientific award winner received the Dr Festus Mogae HIV Clinicians Biennial Award. 

The honour was bestowed on him at the ongoing 8th Botswana International HIV Conference in Gaborone. 

The award recognises his participation in cutting-edge scientific research for the benefit of local, regional and global public health advances. In addition, it recognises Dr Moyo for establishing a Genomic Surveillance Centre and being the first scientist to sequence the COVID-19 Omicron variant in November 2021, and thus the first to sound the alarm to the world. 

A medical virologist and Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory director, Dr Moyo said in his acceptance speech: “This award is a great honour and motivation to the team that I have worked with since 1997 starting at the University of Botswana, whom I am privileged to represent.” 

He thanked government for the nurturing ground that he had been operating under saying it should not be taken for granted. 

Over the past 18 years Dr Moyo, who is also a research associate with the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health (HSPH) and adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Botswana, has contributed to several BHP and HSPH studies as an investigator. 

He oversees the design and implementation of laboratory components of clinical trials, observational and surveillance studies, and mentors junior researchers. 

He has served as co-chair of the Laboratory Technologist Committee of the US National Institutes of Health Supported AIDS Clinical Trials Group and International Maternal Paediatric & Adolescent Clinical Trials. 

Previously, he has been awarded the McGoldrick Fellowship in Biostatistics (HSPH); US NIH Fogarty Global Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship (HSPH and BHP); and Post-Doctoral Fellowship (SANTHE and BHP).

 Recently Dr Moyo was chosen by the German Africa Foundation as the joint winner of the 2022 German Africa Award, alongside South Africa’s Professor Tulio de Oliveira for their roles in the discovery of the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. 

Time Magazine has also recognised and listed him among its TIME100 most influential people in the world. 

Dr Moyo participates in local and international working groups such as HIV drug resistance, Estimates and Projections, WHO Guidelines Development and is a subject matter expert for the African Society of Laboratory Medicine. 

He has made several significant contributions in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission studies, which have informed birth outcomes, the health of HIV-exposed uninfected infants, surveillance of HIV incidence and monitoring of HIV mutations associated with drug resistance. 

With 165 publications, Dr Moyo’s research interests are focused on the characterisation of acute and primary HIV-1 subtype C infection, HIV-cure, molecular epidemiology of HIV-1C infection, drug resistance, dynamics of viral evolution, design and evaluation of cross-sectional methods for estimating HIV incidence, including improved accuracy and incorporating analysis of HIV diversity and estimation of transmission time into multi-assay algorithms.  He is involved in various pathogen genomics and bioinformatic studies including HIV, SARS-COV-2, Hepatitis, Human Papillomavirus, TB, CMV, Sapovirus and Norovirus.

 Dr Festus Mogae HIV Clinicians Biennial Award was launched in 2016.

Past winners are Drs Tendaniu Gaolathe, an internal medicine expert (2016) and Simane Gaseitsewe, a medical technologist and Dr Moyo’s deputy (2018). Ends