Katharina Ronacher completed her training in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria. Thereafter she moved to South Africa, where she worked for over 11 years on large, clinical tuberculosis (TB) research trials funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Union and the National Institutes of Health. Her recent research focuses on the link between TB and diabetes for which she was awarded a 5 year NIH R01 grant (2015-2020) to investigate whether the endocrine dysregulation during type 2 diabetes contributes to increased risk of TB. At the beginning of 2017, Katharina re-located to the Translational Research Institute, Mater Research Institute - The University of Queensland, where she now heads the Infection, Immunity and Metabolism Group. She continues to hold an extraordinary appointment at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.