Ruan Spies

Biography

Ruan is an aspiring clinician-scientist with an interest in infectious diseases. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town where he graduated with first-class honours and was recognised as the best final year student in clinical medicine. Ruan completed his medical internship in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape and was a Community Service Medical Officer at New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town. He also completed the Diploma in HIV Management through the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa during this period. In his first year as a scholar-in-residence, Ruan completed the MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology where his thesis investigated spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of tuberculosis in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He is currently enrolled in a DPhil in Clinical Medicine where his research, based at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, uses epidemiological and whole genome sequencing-derived genetic data to try to understand how people acquired drug-resistant tuberculosis.