Alex leads Wellcome’s work on infectious disease, supporting research into ways to reduce the risks and impacts of infectious disease globally. Alex joined Wellcome from Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson where he led the discovery and development of new drugs for tuberculosis (TB) and related diseases. Alexander spent his early career working as a doctor in rural South Africa, where he led the district TB control program. After working on some of the first HIV clinical trials of HAART in London he completed a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, supported by a Wellcome Research Fellowship. He went on to spend over a decade in South Africa working initially on clinical drug development at the South African Medical Research Council, before leading a translational research group at AHRI.