Associate Professor Jonny Peter

The Allergy and Immunology Unit is headed by Associate Prof Jonathan Peter, who is also Head of the Division of Allergology and Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

He has been the recipient of several awards, both for undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, as well as for research. In 2013, he was award the prestigious Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellowship to undertake a fellowship in Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and a post-doctoral fellowship in laboratory immunology at the Jenner Vaccine Institute. In 2015, he was award a Silver Medal from the SA MRC as a leading early career researcher. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers including a first author publications in The Lancet, a leading general medicine journal and JACI in practice, a leading allergy and immunology journal. His Scopus and Google H Index is 30. He serves on the editorial board of Current Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and as reviewer for multiple scientific journals. He serves on the executive committee of both the Allergy Society of South Africa (ALLSA) and the South African Immunology Society (SAIS). His major clinical and research focus areas include: i) drug hypersensitivity in TB HIV endemic settings, ii) urticaria and angioedema, iii) indigenous therapies for allergic diseases iv) aerobiology and v) primary immunodeficiency diseases. He is supported by grants from the NIH, EDCTP, National Research Foundation and the SA Rooibos Council.

In February 2016, he became the first HPCSA-registered allergist with a base speciality in adult internal medicine. He has a keen interest in medical education from undergraduate to post-graduate levels, including training in research. He serves on the steering committee of the NIH Fogarty HIV and TB training program (www.hattp.uct.ac.za).He is chairman of the Department of Medicine Research committee (www.medicine.uct.ac.za/departmental-research-committee-0), and member of both the Faculty Research committee and Human Research Ethics Committee. He co-chairs the immunology curriculum development group for undergraduate medical students, and has written guest editorials in the SAMJ on the promotion of immunology teaching and training. He has supervised five masters and one completed PhD student; he currently supervises five post-graduate students.

Prof Peter is head of the Division of Allergology and Clinical Immunology at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town which provides tertiary facilities to a population of 3.74 million people. His division provides clinical services focused on atopic e.g. asthma, angioedema and urticaria, drug and food allergies, and immunodeficiency diseases. Several new services have been introduced at Groote Schuur Hospital including a combined multidisciplinary drug allergy clinic, a penicillin de-labeling clinic, as well as adolescent bridging clinic at Red Cross Hospital. We have also expanded the drug allergy desensitisation programme, and have several ongoing investigator-led research projects.