Jacqueline Weyer

Senior Medical Scientist, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, University of Pretoria

Jacqueline Weyer is a Senior Medical Scientist in the Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases since 2007. Here she is tasked with the laboratory investigation (diagnostics and research) of human rabies, viral heamorrhagic fevers and arboviral disease of concern to the health of the South African public. She acts as the Lead Medical Scientist for the Special Viral Pathogens Laboratory and also serves as a member of the leadership team of the Center. Before taking up her task at the NICD, she completed her PhD in Microbiology at the University of Pretoria on the subject of recombinant poxvirus based vaccines for rabies at the age of 26. From 2004 to 2005 she was employed as Research Fellow with the Rabies Unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Georgia, United States of America. In 2006 she was awarded the L’Oreal- UNESCO, Department of Science and Technology Woman in Science Award: PhD Fellowship for Life Sciences.

In 2008, Jacqueline was appointed as Extra-Ordinary Lecturer to the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pretoria, and has since been involved in supervision of 14 BSc Hons or MSc research studies, one MPH and three PhD Students. In the past 10 years, Jacqueline has authored and co-authored more than 20 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and five chapters in books.

She serves as a member of the National Rabies Advisory Group since 2008 and was the co- editor of the National Guide for the Medical, Veterinary and Allied Professions in 2010. In 2012 she was elected the Vice-President of the South African Biorisk Association. This was followed in 2015, by election as the President of this Association. She was also elected as the Co-Chair of the National One Health Forum of South Africa in 2015.

Jacqueline’s interests include the laboratory diagnostics, epidemiology, pathogenesis and host interactions of rabies virus and other zoonotic viral pathogens that cause disease of public health importance in South Africa.