Henrik Kløverpris
Throughout his career, Dr Henrik Kløverpris has worked at the interface of clinical medicine and basic science. He has established a research programme that takes advantage of unique patient and research cohorts to generate high-impact, clinically relevant discovery science.
Henrik’s interest in HIV immunology first piqued at MSc level when, in 2005, he coordinated an HIV T-cell vaccine trial in Anders Fomsgaard’s lab at the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2008 Henrik joined Philip Goulder’s lab at the University of Oxford to study the impact of T-cell responses in control of HIV infection at the population level. Naturally, his PhD and postdoc work there led to several visits to South Africa – the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic. When Henrik was awarded a research prize from the Danish Research Council in 2012, he used that opportunity to join Africa Health Research Institute (then KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB-HIV) in Durban – a place that had left an indelible mark on him. Henrik’s research was initially based in the lab of Dr Alasdair Leslie – a former colleague from the University of Oxford.
At AHRI, Henrik has worked to develop a new area of HIV research. This was made possible through a prestigious Sir Henry Dale Wellcome Trust Fellowship, through University College London, to start his own research group as a member of AHRI faculty. Henrik’s work focuses on innate lymphoid cells and mucosal barrier sites in HIV infection using human tissue samples from local hospitals in and around Durban.
Get in touch with Henrik via henrik.kloverpris@ahri.org
Click here for a full list of publications.
Kløverpris Group
The Kløverpris Group is interested in the mechanisms underlying gut immune reconstitution following injury or damage after HIV infection. To perform these studies, the group has developed unique and well-characterized human tissue cohorts in areas of South Africa home to the highest HIV prevalence in the world.
At the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa, they utilise these unique and well-defined cohorts to study intestinal mucosal and lymphoid tissues in participants. This is a great opportunity to make discoveries in people living with HIV (PLWH) that genuinely impact our understanding of health and disease in low-middle income settings. The Kløverpris Group collaborates globally and has made a series of findings on the effect of HIV infection on gut homeostasis and immune function focused on optimising immune reconstitution in PLWH.
The gut has the largest outward-facing surface area in the body. It is home to the majority of our immune and bacteria cells that exist in a complex interplay with our tissue cells. Gut homeostasis, critical for overall health, is disrupted in PLWH and plays an essential role in HIV-associated pathology not restored by long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART). Although ART significantly reduces mortality and prolongs the life of PLWH, the ageing worldwide population on ART is entering higher-risk age groups for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes and hypertension. This represents a looming new healthcare burden, particularly in countries with limited healthcare resources.
Meet the Team
Faiaz Shaik Abdool
SANTHE Postdoctoral research fellow
Faiaz earned a PhD in biochemistry from UKZN, focusing on diagnostic and vaccine targets for Trichinellosis. His postdoctoral work focuses on identifying HIV reservoirs in tonsillar tissues comparing horizontal transmissions in adults to that of vertical transmissions in children born with HIV, using flow cytometry, microscopy, scRNAseq, and an organoid tonsil model to compare infected tissues across age groups. This research is critical for developing HIV treatments tailored to children, addressing challenges in ART adherence from adolescence to adulthood.
Miguel Marin
Postdoctoral research fellow
Miguel earned a PhD in biomedicine from UPF, Barcelona, focusing on T-cell vaccination and checkpoint blockade immunotherapies for HIV. His research at AHRI investigates HIV immunopathogenesis in the gut, specifically examining how chronic HIV infection and inflammation affect immune and stromal cell dynamics within gut-associated lymphoid tissue. This work aims to deepen the understanding of immune responses in HIV patients and contribute to novel therapeutic strategies.
Kasmira Gopee
Research laboratory technician
Kasmira holds a Master’s degree in medical science in HIV virology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research explored the genetic diversity of the HIV latent reservoir, a key barrier to curing HIV. Currently with the Kløverpris group she studies immune responses and tissue homeostasis in people living with HIV. She oversees various clinical cohorts and BSL2 processing of human blood and tissue samples through coordination with clinicians and the clinical research core at AHRI, and oversees tissue processing, laboratory assays, administrative and general lab duties.
Snenhlanhla Mfusi
Laboratory research assistant
Snenhlanhla completed her masters in medical science (physiology) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her project focused on investigating the association between platelet and endothelial activation and cardiovascular risk among people living with HIV and obesity in South Africa. She is responsible for managing clinical cohorts, processing clinical samples (blood and tissue), conducting flow cytometry and microscopy assays, and handling administrative tasks as well as general lab upkeep. Currently, her focus is on the Kløverpris group’s tonsil and skin cohorts.
Sabrina Tasmin Isaac
Master's student
Sabrina was awarded her honours in forensic genetics degree from the University of Kwazulu-Natal. As a master’s student at AHRI, her work encompasses the investigation of vaccine responses in HIV-exposed uninfected children versus HIV-unexposed uninfected children using a novel tonsil organoid model to delineate immune responses between both groups.
Selected Recent Publications
Fardoos, R., Nyquist, S. K., Asowata, O. E., Kazer, S. W., Singh, A., Ngoepe, A., Giandhari, J., Mthabela, N., Ramjit, D., Singh, S., Karim, F., Buus, S., Anderson, F., Porterfield, J. Z., Sibiya, A. L., Bipath, R., Moodley, K., Kuhn, W., Berger, B., … Kløverpris, H. N. (2022). HIV specific CD8+ TRM-like cells in tonsils express exhaustive signatures in the absence of natural HIV control . Frontiers in Immunology, 13.
Kummerlowe, C., Mwakamui, S., Hughes, T. K., Mulugeta, N., Mudenda, V., Besa, E., Zyambo, K., Shay, J. E. S., Fleming, I., Vukovic, M., Doran, B. A., Aicher, T. P., Wadsworth, M. H., Bramante, J. T., Uchida, A. M., Fardoos, R., Asowata, O. E., Herbert, N., Yilmaz, Ö. H., … Kelly, P. (2002) . Single-cell profiling of environmental enteropathy reveals signatures of epithelial remodeling and immune activation. Science Translational Medicine, 14(660), eabi8633.
Fardoos, Rabiah, et al. HIV Infection Drives Interferon Signaling within Intestinal SARS-CoV-2 Target Cells. JCI Insight, vol. 6, no. 16, Aug. 2021, p. e148920. DOI.org.
Asowata, Osaretin E., et al. Irreversible Depletion of Intestinal CD4+ T Cells Is Associated with T Cell Activation during Chronic HIV Infection. JCI Insight, vol. 6, no. 22, Nov. 2021, p. e146162. DOI.org.
Magnoumba M, Singh A, Ogongo P, Roider J, Asowata O, Fehlings M, Karim F, Ndung'u T, Anderson F, Leslie A, Kløverpris H. N. (2020). Unbiased Profiling Reveals Compartmentalization of Unconventional T-Cells Within the Intestinal Mucosa Irrespective of HIV Infection. Front Immunol. 30;11:579743. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.579743. PMID: 33117384; PMCID: PMC7561384.
Singh A, Kazer SW, Roider J, Krista KC, Millar J, Asowata OE, Ngoepe A, Ramsuran D, Fardoos R, Ardain A, Muenchhoff M, Kuhn W, Karim F, Ndung'u T, Shalek AK, Goulder P, Leslie A, Kløverpris H.N. (2020). Innate Lymphoid Cell Activation and Sustained Depletion in Blood and Tissue of Children Infected with HIV from Birth Despite Antiretroviral Therapy. Cell Rep. 15;32(11):108153. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108153. PMID: 32937142; PMCID: PMC7495043.
Kloverpris, H. N., Kazer, S. W., Mjosberg, J., Mabuka, J. M., Wellmann, A., Ndhlovu, Z., Yadon, M. C., Nhamoyebonde, S., Muenchhoff, M., Simoni, Y., Andersson, F., Kuhn, W., Garrett, N., Burgers, W. A., Kamya, P., Pretorius, K., Dong, K., Moodley, A., Newell, E. W., Kasprowicz, V., Abdool Karim, S. S., Goulder, P., Shalek, A. K., Walker, B. D., Ndung'u, T., & Leslie, A. (2016). Innate Lymphoid Cells Are Depleted Irreversibly during Acute HIV-1 Infection in the Absence of Viral Suppression. Immunity, 44(2), 391-405. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2016.01.006.