Dr Tariro Makadzange
Zimbabwe
Occupational Information
Job Title: Medical scientist and doctor
Professional History
Dr. Azure Tariro Makadzange is an infectious disease physician scientist and Director of Biology at the multinational biopharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. She has held positions as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Assistant in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; Boston Faculty; Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT; Harvard Temporary Senior Lecturer; University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences Consultant; and a Physician at Parirenyatwa Hospital and Parirenyatwa Hospital Family Care Centre. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and received a PhD in HIV immunology from the University of Oxford. She received her training in internal medicine at the University of Washington and did her Infectious Disease fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her research training and career have focused on infectious diseases primarily HIV infection and related opportunistic infections (OIs). Her current work focuses on understanding the immune correlates of HIV disease progression in perinatally infected children and adolescents, as well as the immunopathogenesis of cryptococcal disease in HIV infected adults. In addition to the basic HIV immunology research, she is also involved in clinical trials and operational research studies. She recently completed a study to evaluate outcomes in children and adolescents at one of the largest public programs in Zimbabwe and has worked on establishing an implementation science study to evaluate the efficacy of implementing routine screening for cryptococcal meningitis in reducing mortality among patients initiating ART. She, together with colleagues from the Ragon Institute, has established a basic immunology research laboratory at UZCHS.
She hopes that this lab may begin some critical work towards understanding perinatal HIV immunology and find solutions such as therapeutic vaccines for perinatally infected children. She is committed to capacity-building for science research in Africa and hopes to inspire young Africans to become the lead scientists in finding solutions to medical problems that prevail in Africa.
Dr. Tariro spends her time between MGH and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard and the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS). At UZCHS she manages the Parirenyatwa Hospital Family Care Centre (PHFCC) providing leadership in clinical care, research at the clinic as well as training of interns and residents. PHFCC is one of the largest HIV treatment programs in Zimbabwe. She is a board member of PSI - Population Services International.
Qualifications
BA (cum laude) Smith College. Thesis: African trypanosomiasis in African wild game animals.
MD Harvard Medical School D.Phil
Balliol College, University of Oxford. Internal Medicine (ABIM Certified)
Programme
2007 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow
