Professor Guy Thwaites is an academic infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist. He has been Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit/Wellcome Programme in Vietnam since October 2013. He is responsible for the scientific strategy of the programme, with its major research themes of emerging viral infections, dengue, brain infections, tuberculosis, malaria, enteric infections, antimicrobial drug resistance and care of the critically ill.
His personal research interests focus on severe bacterial infections, including meningitis and Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection, and tuberculosis. He has a longstanding research interest in the diagnosis, treatment and pathophysiology of tuberculous meningitis. Much of his research has been centred on large, pragmatic, randomised controlled trials which have addressed questions of key clinical importance, but have also provided the framework for providing unique insights into disease pathogenesis, antimicrobial pharmacology, and host and bacterial genetics.