C-THAN Conference in South Africa Connects International Collaborators

June 2026

Members of the Center for Innovation in Point-of-Care Technologies for HIV/AIDS and Beyond at Northwestern University (C-THAN) convened at the eighth annual C-THAN meeting at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa, May 12 to 14. C-THAN — a center within the Point of Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN+) — hosted the meeting that was led by Chad Achenbach, MD, MPH, associate director of the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health and professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Preventive Medicine; Sally McFall, PhD, co-director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies (CIGHT) at the Havey Institute for Global Health; and Robert Murphy, MD executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health and the John Philip Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Sudesh Sivarasu, PhD, and the UCT Biomedical Engineering Research Centre co-hosted the conference with the Havey Institute for Global Health leadership team.  

POCTRN+ — part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — aims to build multidisciplinary partnerships to develop technologies with clinical applications. The C-THAN conference is an opportunity for international partners to connect and collaborate on current and upcoming research endeavors.

Attendees at the eighth annual C-THAN meeting convened at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa, May 12 to 14.

The meeting drew an extensive cross-section of partners from eight countries. Participants from the U.S. included Northwestern University, University of Washington, the Mayo Clinic, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Nevada, Reno. The organizations from South Africa were UCT, Stellenbosch University, South African Medical Research Council, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, Aviro Health, Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, Lateral Flow Labs and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Other participants included Universities of Lagos, Ibadan and Jos from Nigeria, University of Science of Technical and Technology Bamako from Mali, Université Cheikh Anta Diopfrom Senegal, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences from Tanzania, Detact Diagnostics from The Netherlands, University of Heidelberg from Germany, and global partner PATH. Additional support was provided by NIH science and program officers from Fogarty International Center, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Office of AIDS Research. 

The networking and collaboration extended from the opening field trips to Antrum Biotech and the National Health Laboratory Services Greenpoint laboratory through two days of standout sessions on implementation science, MADE in Africa device translation, the road to commercialization, pediatric tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, pandemic preparedness, HPV and cervical cancer screening and innovative point-of-care HIV testing and monitoring. 

"Between every panel and gathering, attendees built new collaborations across continents, and the closing talk on C-THAN synergy and the 10-year plan sent the network community home energized, connected and ready for the future,” Achenbach said.

Chad Achenbach, ‘02 MD, ‘02 MPH, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and professor at the Northwestern University School of Engineering, is a member of the Havey Institute for Global Health, Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

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