Dr. Pragalathan Naidoo is currently a Research Project Manager funded by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) in the Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (NRMSM), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). After completing his matric (grade 12) at Umkomaas Secondary School, he was awarded a BSc. degree (Biochemistry and Microbiology), BSc. Hons. degree (Biochemistry), MSc. degree (Biochemistry), and PhD degree (Medical Biochemistry) from the UKZN. His multifaceted areas of research experience/expertise are evident in his publications in ISI/SAPSE accredited journals and his postgraduate student supervision record, which falls within the field of immunology of co-infections (helminths, HIV, TB, and SARS-CoV-2 co-infections), nutrition, parasitology, allergic disorders, gallstone disease, psoriatic arthritis, type 2 diabetes, epigenetics (microRNA and DNA methylation studies), tissue culture-based cancer research, biological ageing, genetic and epigenetic variations (single-nucleotide polymorphism detection), gene expression profiling using Real-Time Quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and maternal and child health (assessing the harmful impacts of maternal air pollution exposure and pesticide exposure on adverse birth outcomes, and respiratory and neurocognitive disorders in infants of the cohort as they mature in age).
