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Congratulations, Akhil Maharaj and Danilo De Silva!

 

What does it take to identify a disease you have never seen before? Or to build the systems that hold critical health data together across an entire continent? These are not hypothetical questions. They are the problems that Akhil Maharaj and Danilo De Silva spent their Master’s years trying to solve.

On 24 March, at the Stellenbosch University’s graduation ceremony, both walked across the stage to show what that work looks like when it comes to completion.

Akhil’s research explored the applications, complexities and opportunities of metagenomics in clinical diagnosis and viral discovery. Where traditional diagnostics search for a known pathogen, metagenomics sequences everything in a biological sample at once. Akhil describes it as “a Pandora’s box of sequencing.” For clinicians facing patients with unknown diagnoses, it is a powerful supplementary tool to uncover hidden pathogens, inform targeted therapeutics and ultimately enhance patient care.

Akhil’s journey began at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), before deepening at the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University. Guided by Prof Tulio de Oliveira, Dr Monika Moir, Prof Houriiyah Tegally, and Dr Marije Hofstra, Akhil emerged not just as a scientist but as someone who knows how to think through hard problems. That same thinking is now taking him into Corporate and Investment Banking. “The skills developed in science translate well into finance: identifying problems, testing hypotheses, and turning findings into clear, actionable insights.”

Danilo’s story began in Governador Valadares, Brazil, where an early love of computers and science set him on a path that would eventually lead him across the ocean to South Africa. After completing his undergraduate degree and working briefly in industry, he received an invitation to pursue a Master’s at CERI, developing data management systems for the INFORM Africa Research Study Group. Behind every major health study is infrastructure holding the data together. Danilo evaluated and designed data management tools to develop a broader infrastructure to support health-related research applications.

Under the supervision of Dr Marcel Dunaiski, with co-supervision from Dr Monika Moir and Dr Joicy Xavier, he contributed to academic publications and found his long-term direction. Danilo is now staying at Stellenbosch to pursue a PhD. “My experience at CERI and within SU helped me challenge these perceptions and see the transformative potential of research.”

Together, Akhil and Danilo’s stories are a reminder that world-class research is being done in and for the Global South, and the people producing it are going on to shape science, finance, technology and beyond.

We are incredibly proud of you both.

Text: CERI Media

News date: 2026-04-09

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