Prof Andreas Diacon was awarded the 2016 Scientific Prize at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Conference recently held in Liverpool, UK.

Diacon is an associate professor at Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, consulting pulmonologist and founder-CEO of TASK Applied Sciences.

He was the principal investigator on some of the largest and most successful tuberculosis drug trials over the past ten years, and has contributed significantly to the development since the 1960s of the first new anti-tuberculosis drugs. One of these drugs is now recommended by the World Health Organisation as multidrug-resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) regimen and decreases treatment time from 24 to nine months.

Diacon has also published 66 new scientific articles in the field of TB research over the last decade.

Diacon's research group, TASK, focuses on clinical drug trials to accelerate the development and evaluation of novel anti-tuberculosis drugs. TASK provides assistance to efficiently conduct studies for diagnosis, treatment or prevention of tuberculosis, as well as for other prevalent diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, where new and improved treatments are urgently needed.