Dr Wake completed undergraduate studies in medicine (BM) and international health (BSc) at the University of Southampton and UCL. She has gone on on to build an integrated clinical and academic career with a focus on Global Health, including completing the DTMH (East Africa) in 2011, and spending periods overseas conducting research alongside clinical work in Haiti, DRC, South Sudan and South Africa.

She gained a PhD in Infectious Diseases in 2019, studying the clinical and immunological implications of cryptococcal antigenaemia in adults with advanced HIV Disease in South Africa. Following this she completed a NIHR clinical lectureship at City St George's, and on completion of dual accreditation in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology in 2024, became a Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Infection at St George's Hospital. 

Dr Wake is now based between London and Johannesburg where she leads several studies focussed on the aetiology and pathophysiology of bacterial, fungal and AMR infections in adults with advanced HIV disease, the implementation of novel diagnostics among this population and the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of antifungal resistant Candida infections.

Dr Wake's research aims to optimise the management of invasive fungal infections, particularly in the context of advanced HIV disease (AHD) and in resource-limited settings. Her PhD research on HIV-related cryptococcosis impacted the cryptococcal screening research agenda, highlighting the ongoing increased risk of mortality among patients with cryptococcal antigenaemia. Her findings underpin two international RCTs testing enhanced treatment for asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenaemia. Rae is a co-investigator for the EFFECT trial of combination treatment with fluconazole and flucytosine, and co-PI for SubEFFECT a related cohort study of subclinical and symptomatic cryptococcal meningitis, at multiple sites in South Africa and Tanzania.

During an NIHR Lectureship, Rae continued to accrue evidence to optimise screening and management of people with AHD, as a member of IMPRINT, a NIHR Global Health Research Group for HIV-related Fungal Infections. With the Mycology Research Group in the II&I and as co-Investigator of the CandiRes study she also developed preliminary evidence to address antifungal resistant Candida infections, providing impetus and supportive data to investigate combination antifungal therapy for invasive candidiasis.

Rae is now leading ambitious projects to tackle these global threats to health at the Wits Mycology Division in Johannesburg. ADVANCE GERMS-SA (funded by the NIHR and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) uses a three-tiered approach to generate national population-level to granular facility-level data to investigate the aetiology of severe infections, including AMR burden, among hospitalised patients with AHD. COMBAT Candida (funded by the Wellcome Trust) is a programme of work including a randomised trial of combination antifungal treatment for Candida bloodstream infections, complemented by ICU cohort studies garnering evidence around Candida epidemiology, transmission dynamics, and resistance mechanisms induced by antifungal exposure in patients, and using a murine model of Candida auris. This work will take place in South Africa, which currently shoulders a colossal burden of both AHD and antifungal resistant Candida infections, and will generate evidence that is relevant and readily applicable to tackling these problems globally.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3193-4888

SHMS Research Pump Priming Award (lead applicant). ADVANCE GERMS-SA Tier 4: Investigating the Accuracy, Acceptability, and Feasibility of Expanded Diagnostics for Hospitalised Adults Living with Advanced HIV Disease in South Africa: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study. £13,334 (2005-6)

JPIAMR (co-applicant). Integrating candidaemia trial samples, data and infrastructure to define novel clinical trial endpoints and treatment strategies (CandiNET). €1,096,242 (2024 - 2029)

Wellcome Trust (Lead applicant). Combination Antifungal Therapy for Candida Bloodstream Infections (CombAT Candida). £6.75 million (2024-2030)

FAILSAFE Network – MRC CMM (Exeter)/ UK Aid GAMRIF (Co-applicant). Surveillance of Candida Antifungal Resistance in the Southern African Region (SCARS). £74,759 (2025-2026)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Co-lead applicant). Advanced HIV Disease Diagnostics and Infectious Diseases in SA. $1.8 million (2024-2027)

Academy of Medical Sciences (Lead applicant). Investigating Combination Antifungal Therapy with Flucytosine for the Prevention of Antifungal Resistance during Treatment of Invasive Candidiasis. £29, 950 (2024-2026)

British Infection Association (Lead applicant). Pharma5FC – CNS pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) study of flucytosine/flurouracil (5-FC/5-FU) in combination antifungal treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in participants of the AMBITION-cm trial. £10,000 (2024-2025)

SGUL Institute for Infection & Immunity Research Support Scheme (Lead applicant). In vitro evolution of Candida spp in single and combination antifungals. £3,750 (2023)

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support (Lead applicant). Plasma pharmacokinetics of flucytosine (5FC) in combination antifungal treatment of HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis. £9,993 (2022)

Meningitis Research Foundation (Lead applicant). Improving clinical outcomes on HIV-infected adults at risk of cryptococcal meningitis. £147,724 (2016-2019)

Halley Stewart Trust (Lead applicant). Taking prevention to the patient: Evaluation of a point-of-care ‘screen and treat’ strategy for the prevention of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV Infected Adults. £49,750 (2014-2016)

Sir Ratanji Dalal Trust (Lead applicant). Optimising the Clinical Impact of Cryptococcal Antigen (CRAG) Screening of Asymptomatic HIV- infected Patients in Gauteng Province, South Africa. £20,000 (2014-2015)

St George’s Hospital NHS Charity (Lead applicant). Prevention of cryptococcal meningitis £9,951 (2014-2015)

Lecturer MSc Global Health (CSGUL)

Lecturer MBBS/ Biomedical Sciences BSc - Microbiology module

Supervisor Biomedical Sciences BSc projects (2 - CSGUL), Epidemiology PhD (1 - University of the Witwatersrand), Infectious Diseases PhD (1 - CSGUL)