TDR Global Africa

I am a doctoral researcher, focusing on injury epidemiology at the University of Turku, Finland. I have previously worked as a Statistician in Gulu University, where I had been involved in data management and analysis in specific epidemiological studies conducted in the Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University. I have also been on the WHO/TDR Clinical Research and Development Fellowship program, during which I was placed at the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg from 2017-2018.

My interest is in data management and analysis, injury and trauma epidemiology.

Personal Statement
I am a practicing medical laboratory scientist, biomedical research scientist, and currently Project Coordinator of a European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) funded regional nodes of excellence project title: “Central Africa Network for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria towards developing clinical trial site in central Africa”. I participate in the design and coordination of the conduct of several ongoing collaborative studies aimed at providing baseline data for future intervention trials. My major areas of research include maternal-foetal interactions in malaria, understanding how immunity to malaria works, mechanisms involved in malaria pathogenesis and anti-malarial drug resistance monitoring amongst others. I have a strong track record of mentoring medical and paramedical students, postgraduate students (M.Sc and PhD students) and junior faculty. I frequently provide peer review services to some medical journals in the area of infectious diseases and I am member of the University of Buea Institutional Review Committee (created by me with finding from the EDCTP).
I have vast experience in project management and have won 9 competitive externally funded research projects which have been successfully executed and delivered on schedule. My training in Immunology at the Department of Immunology Stockholm empowered me with cutting edge techniques in immunology. Furthermore, collaboration with the Welcome Trust centre for genetic research, University of Oxford in a 22 countries worldwide centered project aimed at understanding how immunity to malaria works exposed our group to high throughput genotyping techniques as over 500,000 SNPs were genotyped prospecting for susceptibility and protective SNPs. These exposures endow on our group the capacity to participate in immunological and genotyping studies. In a previous study we recruited children of different clinical (mild, moderate and severe malaria) and non clinical (malaria infection with no symptoms and apparently healthy) children in a malaria endemic area, we performed basic haematological, biochemical and immunological analyses. DNA extracted was genotyped for SNPs known to demonstrate protection or susceptibility and prospected for other SNPs that could be associated with protection or susceptibility. New candidate SNPs were identified that need to be validated in controlled clinical studies. In another published study involving samples from 6 other countries funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), clinical samples were genotyped from patients that responded to antimalarial therapy and those that demonstrated resistance. The objective was to identify SNPs that could be associated with antimalarial drug resistance. Results demonstrated some SNPs that were predominant in patients who experienced drug resistance thus providing leads for the development of methods that exploit genes in predicting drug resistance.

Our group has the experience to contribute towards the successful implementation of the proposed research project.

B. Positions and Honors Positions
1995-1998 Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon
1998-2007 Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon

1999-2012 Vice-Dean i/c Studies and Student’s Affairs, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon

2000-2005 Head of Department, Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon
2004-2005 Acting Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon
2006-2010 Chair, Malaria Immunology and Pathogenesis Network (MIMPAC);
consortium of African institutions engaged in studies on the Immunology and Pathogenesis of malaria
2008-2013 Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea Cameroon.
2011-2012 Acting Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon.
2012-Date Vice-Dean i/c Studies and Student’s Affairs, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Cameroon

Other Experience and Professional Memberships
1997: Member of the expert committee on harmonisation of medical degree programmes of State Universities in Cameroon, Yaounde.
1998: Member of the expert committee on the development of curriculum for Higher National Diploma (HND) for the Ministry of Higher Education, Cameroon
2003-2009: Member of the Scientific and Coordinating Committee (SCC) of the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET).
2005: Member of the AfroGuide network, developing guidelines for health research in Africa. Coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
2009-2014: Member of the Governing Board of the Malaria Genomic and Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN), funded by the Grand Challenges in Health Programme by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Foundations of the National Institutes of Health USA and in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, UK
2010-2015: Full member, European Virtual Institute for Malaria Research (EVIMalaR), European Union funded network of excellence involving 37 European institutions and five African institutions collaborating in innovative malaria research
2015-date: Founding member of the African Malaria Research Network (AfriMalaR)

Honors

1991 Cameroon Government Scholarship to read PhD degree at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria
1997 WHO postdoctoral scholarship for training in advanced Immunological methods at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.
2007 Best African Malaria Researcher award, Awarded by the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria/Tropical Disease Research (MIM/TDR) World Health Organization
2007 Best clinical research article from a developing country award titled: “Malaria parasitaemia and systemic cytokine bias in pregnancy; International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics; 2007, 97:15-20”. A John J. Sciarra International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics paper award, awarded by the International Federation of Gynecologist and Obstetricians (FIGO).

C. Contributions to Science/Research Interests
My contributions involve the use of epidemiological and immunological tools in dissecting the immune natural responses that occur at the maternal-foetal interphase and understanding how immunity to malaria works in view of contributing valuable information towards malaria vaccine development.
Overall, my research interest is on malaria which is one of the poverty related diseases that is endemic to Africa south of the Sahara. It also features as one of the targeted diseases in the millennium development goals. Firstly my research interest has been focused on understanding the acquisition of natural immune responses to malaria in residents of endemic areas using malaria vaccine candidates and investigating the impact of co-infections especially helminthes on disease outcomes.

Secondly I have been interested in studying the impact of malaria in pregnancy on the mother and the foetus and in longitudinal cohort studies investigating the effect of foetal development in a malaria parasitised environment on level of transplacentally acquired immunity and its immune response to malaria during infancy. Furthermore I was interested in demonstrating whether exposure of the foetus to malaria parasites during pregnancy may render it more susceptible to malaria attacks during the first months of life.

Thirdly I have been interested in understanding the mechanisms that explains why children who are equally exposed to natural malaria infection respond differently in terms of disease outcome. Particularly I have investigated the role played by specific antibodies, cytokines and some gene polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of severe malaria defined as severe malaria anaemia and cerebral malaria.

Fourthly, I developed interest in determining the efficacy of both first line and commonly prescribed antimalarial drugs in our community. Studies have focused on determining the safety and efficacy of quinine sulphate and Artesunate/Amodiaquine therapy in our community.

Recently, I have developed interest in health research ethics especially with identifying those areas of the international guidelines on health research where there are needs to adapt these in the African context. Lastly my focus in the years ahead will be to develop capacity for health research particularly with regards to clinical trials of new interventions for malaria.

A dedicated and motivated individual, trained as a Medical Laboratory Scientist and a public health enthusiast with a WHO-TDR MSc in Applied health social science degree in-view who is passionate to bring change to the current global sufferings caused by diseases and climate change. Having over 8 years of experience in clinical and public health laboratory services mostly in leadership roles with INGOs and UN agencies.