Suzaan Marais obtained her MBChB degree from the University of the Free State in 1995 and she received her Neurology training at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2011 she obtained a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and subsequently completed her PhD, which investigated tuberculous meningitis, in 2014.
She is currently a Consultant Neurologist at Groote Schuur Hospital and an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include neurological infections in HIV-infected persons, in particular neurological tuberculosis.