Robert Wilkinson

Professor Robert Wilkinson is a Professor in Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London's Faculty of Medicine (since 2007), with concurrent roles as Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town. His research focuses on HIV-TB co-infection mechanisms, immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), and tuberculosis diagnostics/prevention. Affiliations include the Institute of Infection, Vaccine Research Network, and Immuno-Pathology Network.

Education: MA (Cambridge), BM BCh (Oxford), PhD (Royal Postgraduate Medical School), and multiple specialist certifications including FRCP and Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Research emphasizes translational studies in TB pathogenesis, biomarker discovery (e.g., transcriptomic signatures), and clinical trials evaluating interventions like vitamin D supplementation and MVA85A vaccines.

Key achievements include landmark studies on IPT efficacy in HIV/TB co-infected populations, identification of IL-10/IL-22 roles in TB-IRIS, and discovery of blood transcriptomic profiles predictive of TB progression. His work has influenced WHO policy and advanced understanding of TB latency, pericarditis pathogenesis, and immune modulation.