Award winners, from left: Malika Davids, Dr Richard van Zyl Smit and Dr Jashira Naidoo

The run of good fortune has continued as the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit made a clean sweep of the original research awards at the combined national South African Thoracic and Critical Care societies meeting in Sun City on the 28th of August 2012. Dr van Zyl Smit received the best oral presentation for original research about how cells from human lungs respond to cigarette smoke, whilst Malika Davids received the junior award for her work investigating how certain types of immune cells subvert protective immunity in patients with XDR-TB. Dr Jashira Naidoo, a medical registrar, received the best poster award for her work about managing scarring in the lungs of LIP-infected patients.