Prof Gqaleni is a Research Professor and acting Academic Leader of the Discipline of Traditional Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  He is also Faculty member of the Africa Health Research Institute

Prof Nceba Gqaleni trained as a biochemist at the former University of Natal and obtained his doctorate at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland in 1996. His research interests include immunology, infectious and non-infectious diseases and traditional medicine. He has served on the Interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council of South Africa appointed by the Minister of Health. 

In 2007 was appointed Chair of Indigenous Health Care Systems Research.  Prof Gqaleni has also been Deputy Dean of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.

He has served on various national and international bodies including the Presidential Task Team on African Traditional Medicine, Chairperson of the IKS Bioprospecting and Product Development Platform of the Department of Science & Technology, Deputy Chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Council on AIDS, and has been a member of the WHO (African Regional Office) expert committee on Traditional Medicine.  

The thrust of his work is two-fold: first, to find alternative treatments to common conditions confronting Africa (HIV and diabetes) and, second, to facilitate the integration of traditional medicine in South Africa’s national public health and global health systems.