Tariro Makadzange

Highly respected by her peers across global health, academia, and the private sector, Tariro is an experienced academic researcher and public health leader.

As a Physician Scientist with an MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD (DPhil) in Immunology from the University of Oxford, her specialist clinical training is in Internal Medicine (University of Washington) and Infectious Diseases (Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital).

Tariro’s academic research has produced seminal work on the management of HIV. She has been engaged in the training and mentoring of HIV clinicians and researchers, and co-established one of the largest HIV treatment programs in Zimbabwe.  She established a clinical research program conducting clinical research and multi-site implementation science research studies and basic immunology research.

After a career in academia, Tariro transitioned to the private sector, where she worked at Gilead Sciences in clinical development and discovery research. Her work spanned human studies of antibody therapeutics for HIV to late-stage small molecule trials, and she also led the HIV therapeutic vaccine programme with responsibility for establishing pre-clinical immunology, vaccine immunogen design capabilities, and overseeing project teams through to vaccine manufacturing and interactions with the regulatory agency. She also served as the Virology lead for the External Innovation program, reviewing investment and research partnership opportunities.

Recognising the need for expertise in pandemic responsiveness and clinical trials in Africa she established the Charles River Medical Group, a research organisation focused on diversifying research by including Africa and Africans in medical and public health research. The organisation conducts class clinical trials, public health and implementation science research and discovery research in infectious diseases.