Professor Wendy Stevens (Director) - MBBch, MMed (Haem), FCPath (Haem) is a specialist pathologist with several years experience in the field of diagnostics, with a particular interest in HIV diagnosis and monitoring. She is the overall director of the CLS laboratory. She also currently holds the position of Head of the Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology at the National Health Laboratory Service and the University Of The Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been involved in the supervision of laboratories of both a research and routine nature. She is currently involved in a host of research projects funded by the NIH which includes the following: 1) principal investigator on the laboratory core and affordable diagnosis and monitoring project of the CIPRA “ Safeguard the Household project, 2) co-investigator on the ACTG trial network for the Johannesburg ACTU site, 3) laboratory investigator for vaccine trials conducted in South Africa under the HVTN network, 4) laboratory investigator for the International AIDS Vaccine initiative (IAVI), 5) investigator on NIH funded grant on Structured Treatment Interruption in resource poor environments.

Dr Ute Jentsch is the Chief Executive of CLS. She is a Medical Graduate (MBBCH) and further qualified in Pathology in the field of Medical Microbiology (MMed and DTM & H). She has many years experience in the fields of serology and microbiology and has previously headed up the serology division of the National Health Laboratory Service during the SAIMR days. Dr Jentsch has been employed by CLS since its inception and has validated many serological assays including HIV assays including Rapid assays, conventional ELISA platforms as well as Western blot testing. Dr Jentsch has also facilitated the set-up of TB diagnostics in the Biosafely Level 3 laboratory at CLS.Dr Jentsch was responsible for coordinating the central laboratory role and activities in the Microbicides Development Program between 2003 and 2009 at 7 African sites. Together with other CLS Project Managers she currently collaborates in several major studies, namely CIPRA, IAVI, PrEP, GSK MVI, CHAVI, MTN and ReMOX. She has many years of experience in clinical trials, working as a clinical investigator on the first ARV trials in the mid 1990 and the moving over to managing the laboratory components of clinical trials since being employed by CLS. This understanding of both the clinical and laboratory components is of advantage to CLS.