Mignon du Plessis is a medical scientist in the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa, and holds a joint appointment as lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In her position she manages the molecular bacteriology laboratory which includes the detection and characterisation of bacterial respiratory and meningeal pathogens for surveillance, diagnostics and research. Her research interests include the molecular epidemiology of bacterial respiratory pathogens and exploring new molecular diagnostic platforms.