Prof Helen Ayles, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, DTM&H, MSc, PhD, has worked in the field of HIV and TB in Africa for over 20 years, where she has both implemented care programmes and undertaken research. She is a Professor of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and the Director of Research of Zambart, a multidisciplinary research group that has conducted a range of studies from clinical trials and laboratory-based diagnostic studies to community-randomized trials.

Prof Ayles is the overall Principal Investigator of the TREATS study, a consortium funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), which evaluates the effect of population-level HIV and TB screening and treatment on the burden of TB. The TREATS-COVID study is nested within this larger parent study.