Isaac K Quaye, PhD Medical Sciences, is a Professor at the Regent University College of Science and Technology, Ghana. Isaac received his Bachelors and Master’s degree in Biochemistry, from the University of Ghana and proceeded to the University of the Ryukyus, School of Medicine, Japan for his PhD in Medical Sciences. His graduate thesis first reported on Nucleolar Localization Signals in ribosomal proteins and was highly acknowledged globally.

The work earned the commendation of Professor Günter Blobel, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering Nuclear Localization Signals in 1999. Isaac continued his postdoctoral studies first at the Institute of Molecular Biology,Taipei Taiwan, and subsequently at the Department of Genome Sciences University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

During the period he also initiated the online data base fo r antimalaria drug resistance with Prof Carol Sibley, which has grown into the global WWARN program. His own research started with Biomakers of infectious and non-infectious diseases, using Haptoglobin as a focus. He first reported on the association of Haptoglobin and diabetes, and also on HIV disease severity. This work also earned the attention of Prof Oliver Smithies, who discovered haptoglobin phenotypes and won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007. Prof Smithies invited Isaac to his lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill USA. Isaac also first reported on the presence of P. vivax and P. ovale in Namibia and Botswana.

His research interests are in Biomarkers of infectious and non-infections diseases, with inflammation as focus. Currently his focus is on the transmission dynamics of P. Vivax and P. Ovale in Africa. His work led to the founding of the Pan African Vivax and Ovale Network in Africa (PAVON). He is a member of the RBM ARMPC Steering Committee.

Ben Adu Gyan PhD, is Associate Professor at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana. He received his BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology from the University of Ghana in 1985. In 1994 he graduated with MSc degree in Parasitology from the Karolinska Institute and PhD in Immunology from Stockholm University, Sweden in 2002.

Dr. Gyan appointed Research fellow in 1996. His background immunology has provided him with the opportunity to conduct research into a number of endemic tropical diseases as well as non-communicable diseases in Ghana in the advancement of public health. His research has contributed to understanding the role of endothelial progenitor cells in pathogenesis of cerebral malaria. In the past couple of years Dr. Gyan has extended his interest into studies in preeclampsia, arterial stiffness in diabetes, Burkitts lymphoma and hypertension.

His role in malaria vaccine research include investigator role in the Phase Ib trial of the EBA-175 RII-NG vaccine in Ghana. He is also an investigator/expert and a member of Malaria Vaccine Working Group, a consortium guiding the study development plan for the immunology ancillary studies of the RTSS, S malaria vaccine. He is involved in networking and capacity building in malaria pathogenesis in Africa.

The outcome of these initiatives include the establishment of the Malaria Pathogenesis Consortium in 2006. As Coordinator for Internship programs until recently, Dr. Gyan played key roles in training of students and young scientist. He played a key role in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded postdoctoral training program at NMIMR.

The programme was the first of its kind in Africa in training the next generation of biomedical research leaders to advance their careers in biomedical research. Currently he is spearheading the establishment of a Global Health Training Program in at NMIMR. He has 95 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.

Nancy Odurowah Quashie (aka Duah) PhD, DLSHTM is a Senior Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), University of Ghana. She is the Head of the Department of Epidemiology (2017 to date) and the Chair of the NMIMR COVID-19 Data Management Committee (2020). In 1998, she received her BSc degree in Botany and Zoology at the University of Cape-Coast in Ghana and proceeded to get an MPhil degree in Zoology (Applied Parasitology) at the University of Ghana in 2001.

Nancy got her PhD and DLSHTM in 2008 under the supervision of Prof. David J. Conway at the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which was funded by the competitively sought Commonwealth Scholarship Award. Her expertise is in Parasitology, Immunology and Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases especially Malaria and Parasitic Diarrheal Infections.

The success of the work has established a collaboration between NMCP and NMIMR for surveillance of antimalarial drug efficacy/resistance in the country (using 10 sentinel sites) as well as tracking the malaria positivity rates in Ghana using 30 sentinel sites. Nancy is a member of faculty of the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana. She has supervised PhD, MPhil and undergradute students and published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1vI8yri6xi2EIe/bibliography/public/).

Her malaria group in collaboration with Dr Venkatachalam Udhayakumar’s lab at the Malaria Branch, CDC, Atlanta won the Charles C. Shepard Science Award 2017 for Laboratory Science. The award for demonstrating excellence in science for the paper entitled “Within-host competition and drug resistance in human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2016, 283(1826):20153038.

Delenasaw Yewhalaw, PhD in Medical Sciences is a Professor and founding Director of Tropical and Infectious Diseases Research Center (TIDRC) at Jimma University, Ethiopia. He has over 20 years of extensive research and teaching experience.

His research focuses on malaria and other vector-borne infectious diseases and has over 96 publications. He established Tropical and Infectious Diseases Research Center with state-of-the-art facilities which serves as center of excellence for infectious diseases research in Ethiopia, the region and beyond.

He developed a curriculum and launched a PhD program in tropical and infectious diseases. He mentored over 60 MSc and 18 PhD students. He has been awarded several prestigious research grants from NIH, European Union, Wellcome Trust, WHO/TDR and others.

Muzamil Mahdi Abdel Hamid (PhD) is a full time Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Biology, and Head Department of Parasitology and Medical Entomology at Institute of Endemic Diseases (IEND), University of Khartoum, Sudan.

His research work focuses on genomic epidemiology and transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases including malaria, monitoring malaria drug resistance, and on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Also, he is working on emerging and neglected tropical diseases with a particular interest in surveillance, mapping, the development and evaluation of new diagnostics tools. As part of PANDORA-ID NET in which he is an investigator he is interested in arboviruses, emerging diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and capacity development. He has been managing a number of research grants and collaborations with key scientists in the field. He published over sixty research articles in peer reviewed international Journals.

Dr. Solomon Worku Gobezie is currently working for Ministry of Health & Wellness Botswana at the position of Technical Advisor on Malaria other communicable and Non-communicable diseases. He also works at the University of Botswana as an adjunct lecturer at public Health & Family medicine Department.

Received Master’s degree in Public Health with Honour from Addis Ababa University and a Doctorate degree in Medicine Saint Petersburg Russia. He has served in different capacities Head of Health department Francistown and Boteti districts. Country Director for Making Medical injection Safer project in Ethiopia and Advisor on Human resource in Health Tulane University based in Addis Ababa.

He served as the vice chair for Ethiopia Public Health Association 2006-2010.

Giacomo Maria Paganotti, PhD, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Botswana-University of Pennsylvania Partnership (BUP), and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Botswana (UB) in Gaborone.

He acts as laboratory director of a join facility between UB and BUP leading activities, training and supervisor of local under and postgraduate UB students. He received his degree in Biology from Tor Vergata University in Rome, Italy, and his PhD in Animal Biology from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

His post-doc on Plasmodium falciparum genetic diversity was done at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research experience and interest in malaria spans from host susceptibility and pharmacogenetics to vector biology and host-parasite coevolution. He has worked in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Botswana. Other research interests are in the area of HIV, papilloma virus and pathogens' drug resistance selection.

. He is PI, co-PI and co-investigator of several research grants from NIH, Penn Center for Aids Research, Children Hospital of Philadelphia, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Merck Serono, Malaria Elimination 8, etc. His publications can be fund at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=paganotti+g&sort=date

Eric Mbindo Njunju holds a Master of Science degree. He is a lecturer of Biochemistry at the Copperbelt University, School of Medicine in Ndola, Zambia. Eric received his Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Zambia in Biochemistry and his Master’s of Science degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical research from Vrije University of Brussels in Belgium. Prior to joining the University in 2014, Eric had worked for a medical research institution, the Tropical Diseases Research Centre, where he worked on a number of projects in malaria.

He is currently a co-investigator on a project that aims at evaluating Plasmodium vivax ecology and transmission dynamics.

Amadou Niangaly has a Doctorate in Pharmacy degree and a Master’s degree in Parasitology-Mycology. Since 2002, he is working as Lab investigator and as pharmacist in malaria research and malaria vaccine clinical trials in Mali.

Dr Niangaly has been appointed Assistant Professeur in Parasitology-Mycology at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technology of Bamako in Mali and also Research Associate at the Malaria Research and Training Center – Parasito mainly focus on molecular biology and genomics. His is currently working on epidemiology of Plasmodium vivax infection in Mali, West Africa and the mechanism of Duffy-negative erythrocytes invasion by this parasite.

Dr Isidore Tiandiogo TRAORE, MD, Msc in Biostatistics and PhD in Epidemiology, is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Bobo-Dioulasso and a Clinical Researcher at the Centre MURAZ/National Institute of Public Health in Burkina Faso.

He has completed an EDCTP Training and Mobility Fellowship at MERCK in Darmstadt (Germany) where he acquire advanced knowledge and skills in clinical trial design and operations.

He is leading a couple of clinical researches on HIV, Viral Hepatitis, and COVID-19 prevention and treatment in Burkina Faso. He has also lead general capacity building/preparedness projects at his institution, and has monitored several international clinical trials on HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

He is member of the expert group “Action Coordonnée (AC) 47 de l’ANRS "Dynamics and control of the HIV and AIDS epidemics and Hepatitis” and member of the National COVID-19 Public Health Advisory Committee established in march 2020 to provide advice on Burkina Faso's health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has received distinctions including the “Pharo thesis award” and the bronze medal at « Journées Infectiopôle Sud 2015 - IHU Méditerranée Infection » in France.

Mimie Ampas Bitshi, is a Medical Doctor ( MD), specialist in Parasitology at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Mimie's research interest focus broadly on the parasitic diseases mainly malaria and schistosomiasis.

She is currently working at the National Institute of Biomedical Research(INRB) in Kinshasa, where she participated in the multiple indicators cluster study for malaria in 2018. In this study several RDT were positive for Plasmodium vivax ,molecular analyzes are underway for confirmation.

Laurent Dembele, Engineer, MSc, PhD. is Professor of Biotechnology Applied Microbiology at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Universite des Sciences, des Techniques et des Technologies de Bamako (USTT B), Mali. Dr Dembele is also a fellow of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Dr Dembele lead Medicines for Malaria Venture non-falciparum drug discovery efforts in Mali-Ghana.

Dr Dembele is a Board Review Member of the Vaccines and Immunology Open Access Journal. Dr Dembele obtained his Engineer degree in 2007 and master’s degrees 2008 in Biotechnology, Microbiology and Drug Engineering and completed his PhD in 2012 at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) Paris 6, France. Dr Dembele moved to Big Pharma for Postdoctoral research at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Disease (NITD), Singapore, where his has spent five years focusing on Drug Resistance and Malaria Relapsing Species Liver Stage Technologies Development.

During the period he also initiated the online data base for antimalaria drug resistance with Prof Carol Sibley, which has grown into the global WWARN program. His own research started with Biomakers of infectious and non-infectious diseases, using Haptoglobin as a focus. He first reported on the association of Haptoglobin and diabetes, and also on HIV disease severity. This work also earned the attention of Prof Oliver Smithies, who discovered haptoglobin phenotypes and won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007. Prof Smithies invited Isaac to his lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill USA. Isaac also first reported on the presence of P. vivax and P. ovale in Namibia and Botswana.

His research interests are in Biomarkers of infectious and non-infections diseases, with inflammation as focus. Currently his focus is on the transmission dynamics of P. vivax and P. ovale in Africa. His work led to the founding of the Pan African Vivax and Ovale Network in Africa (PAVON). He is a member of the RBM ARMPC steering Committee.

Linda Eva Amoah, PhD. is Senior Research Fellow in the Immunology Department at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana, Ghana. Linda received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana and delved into drug resistant malaria for her PhD (Chemistry) at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Dr Amoah is presently working in the area of malaria transmission where she is interested in identifying host genetic traits that influence the infectiousness of circulating Plasmodium gametocytes as well as parasite genetic traits that enhance their infectiousness to the mosquito.

Linda pioneered research into the existence parasites with deletions in exon 2 of the pfhrp2 gene in Ghana and has since been working with the Ghana National Malaria Control Program to conduct routine surveillance of parasites with pfhrp2 gene deletions. Linda is a member of the expert-working group on malaria at the Malaria Center for Excellence and the Non Communicable Diseases Support Center, both of the University of Ghana.

She is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Cellular Molecular Biology and faculty at the West Africa Center for Cell Biology of Infections Pathogens (WACCBIP) of the University of Ghana. She is a member of the University of Ghana Academic Board, the Health Professions Education Committee of the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana and other committees at the NMIMR, including the Biobanking Promotion Team.

Professor Tshefu completed a public health and tropical medicine program at Tulane University in 1987. Then she undertook a parasitology PhD program that she was able to complete in 1993. Prior to these degrees, she had completed a medical course of study and she had been working as an internist for many years at the Kinshasa University’s Hospital.

After her studies in United States she went back to DR Congo where she worked in field as laboratory coordinator and then as project coordinator. Following that she has been teaching diseases control as a Professor at Kinshasa School of Public Health since 2003 . Since then, she is the head of Department of Community Health in this institution. She has also been conducting several researches in infectious diseases.

She has extensively worked on malaria studying many aspects ranging from antimalarial drugs resistance and efficacy, social and behavioral study of population towards malaria, pharmacokinetic studies on artemisinin, clinical trial on severe malaria treatment, and clinical trials on new investigational antimalarial drugs. She is an active member of the National Malaria Control Task Force in the DRC and has been for long their technical adviser.

Moreover, she regularly works with several funders, programs such as Global Funds, UNICEF, WHO etc in conducting malaria studies or in the monitoring and evaluation. Beside malaria, she is involved in studies aiming to improve children and maternal health using complementary feeding funded by NIH. She has also worked to implement neonatal resuscitation programs in rural areas working with Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research.

She also led a WHO-funded project on simplified regimens for management of serious bacterial infections in neonates and young infants. She managed another WHO-funded project aiming to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. She is author or coauthor of many articles published in medical journals including The lancet. She also is former Dean of Kinshasa School of Public Health.

Amidou Diarra, MSc, PhD in Immunology from the Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme (CNRFP) based Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. CNRFP is one of the technical platform of the National Public Health Institute (NPHS) of Burkina Faso. With more than 15 years working at the CNRFP, He used to assume consecutively the role of Head of parasitological lab unit and immunology lab.

His mains research activities are focused on the understanding of the immune response of pathogen (mainly malaria) against several synthetics antigens and also safety assessment of new anti-malarial drugs. WHO microscopic expert (L2), Diarra is engaged since 2008 in external quality control of malaria diagnostic with the College of American Pathogist (CAP) and since 2015 with the CLS/NICD based in Johannesburg in South Africa.

He serves as reviewers in different peer review journals and also member of several Scientifics consortium such as American Society for tropical medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), since November 2010; the Société Africaine de Parasitologie (SOAP) in November 2016, the Fédération International des Sociétés d’Immunologie (FAIS), in March 2006 and the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) since 2003.

Ghyslaine Bruna Djeunang Dongho, PhD. i now affiliated to NIH, USA. She was a part-time Lecturer at the Evangelical University of Cameroon. She served as Head of Research Unit at Projet Intégré Pour la Promotion de l’Auto-Développement (PIPAD), as well as being Mentor and part-time Lecturer at the Sintieh Research Academy.

Bruna Djeunang received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Epidemiology and Public Health from The Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Dschang and her PhD. from the Sapienza University of Rome in Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Public Health under the supervision of Dr. Gianluca Russo and Dr Martin Sanou Sobze.

She is among the pioneer nutrition educators trained by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for Francophone Africa in 2015. Her recent research activities include malaria epidemiology and host factors, Nutrition and STDs/HIV and AIDS. She is currently involved in research on Plasmodium vivax malaria in Cameroon, and is a member of the Women in Malaria Association, and the Pan African Vivax and Ovale Network (PAVON Consortium).

Bruna Djeunang serves as reviewer for MDPI Journals and Journal of Public Health in Africa. She was awarded two travel grants to attend the International Conference on Plasmodium vivax Research (2017 and 2019 editions). She was also awarded a Travel grant by the RSTMH to attend the advanced residential course on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Poverty Related Diseases in Pemba, 2017.

Dr. Mamoudou Cisse, MD, MSc, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer of Medical Parasitology at both the Université Nazi Boni and Centre MURAZ at Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso. He serves as the malaria and neglected tropical diseases team leader at Centre MURAZ, one the research centres of the National Public Health Institute of Burkina Faso.

Dr. Cisse received MD’s degree from the University of Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. He also got both his Master’s degree and his Ph.D. in Parasitology from the Université Nazi Boni under the supervision of Prof. Robert T. Guiguemde.

He has conducted as principal investigator, several projects on malaria and neglected tropical diseases. His research is focused on malaria in pregnancy (epidemiology, drugs resistance, clinical trials) and schistosomiaisis (epidemiology, diagnosis, and clinical trials).

Issiaka Soulama, PharmD, PhD. is Molecular Parasitologist at Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme (CNRFP) which is part of the Public Health Institute of Burkina Faso. He served as Head o f the Molecular Biology at CNRFP. He is a part time lecturer at the University of Ouagadougou Prof.Joseph Ki-Zerbo and the University of Nazi BONI in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Soulama received PharmD, Master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Ouagadougou. His recent research activities include host-pathogen interactions including genomic and metabolomic analysis in malaria children living in Burkina Faso.

Soulama also conducted different studies in relation with human and Plasmodium falciparum genotyping including typing resistance molecular markers to antimalarial drugs. Soulama serves as reviewers in different peer review journals and worked as Chair of scientific committee in different conferences including the West African Network of Clinical trials of Antimalarial drugs, the African Association for Research and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance.

He is member of the American Committee of Molecular, Cellular and Immunoparasitology (ACMCIP). Soulama has been accepted as ASTMH Scientific Program Committee Member for 3 years starting from 2020.

Ntebaleng Makate, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. She received her BSc (Hons.) degree in Zoology from Bendel State University, Ekpoma in Nigeria and her PhD from Reading University, UK, in Insect Molecular Biology.

Her research interests involve molecular identification of insect pests of agricultural and medical importance and their control. Other research interests are in the area of malaria looking at the distribution of the malaria vectors in Botswana and their insecticide resistance status towards the use of synthetic chemicals for their control. Her recent involvement in research activities include a project on ‘Mosquito Abundance, Diversity and Assessment of Public Health Risk’ from a grant awarded by Ministry of Health and Wellness, and CDC Botswana.

Another project titled; ‘Evaluating the Impact of Malaria Health Posts on Resident and Mobile and Migrant Populations in E8 Border Districts’; was from a grant awarded by Elimination Eight (E8) through the Global Fund and Global Health Group. She was the Principal Investigator in both projects. Dr Makate has been a recipient of the CV Raman International Fellowship for African Researchers. She is also a member of the National Taxonomy Committee (NTC) a committee mandated to drive the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) programme of work in Botswana.

I have 28 years’ experience in clinical laboratory sciences, ten years as a practicing Medical Laboratory Scientist and 18 years as a university academic and researcher.

Current research interest include work on ferroportin polymorphism and infectious diseases including malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

I have considerable experience collaborating in international, multi-center research projects which have been funded by NIH and Wellcome Trust.

My most notable contribution to science is my work demonstrating that ferroportin Q248H mutation, which is prevalent in populations of African ancestry, is associated with protection against iron deficiency.

Ferroportin is the sole iron export membrane protein identified in mammals that is abundantly expressed on absorptive enterocytes and macrophages and is essential for physiological regulation of cellular iron.

The expression of ferroportin is positively induced by cellular iron and is suppressed by liver hepcidin in response to either increased systemic iron or inflammatory stimuli.

My earlier work focused on plasma proteins transferrin and haptoglobin and their role in iron homeostasis and infections. Transferrin and haptoglobin polymorphisms play an important role in iron homeostasis in African populations.

Currently T. Sowah is the IT and eLearning Director of Regent University College of Science and Technology. With over three decades experience in IT, T Sowah cuts across a very wide spectrum of the IT landscape. He, an Alumnus of Cape Coast University (1984) also read MBA with specialisation in MIS at Maastricht School of Management in Netherlands (2010). He has a very rich electronics background which makes him supervise a lot of electronic projects. He has been mainly involved in the set up of 4 ISPs both in Ghana and outside. He has worked on both Satellite as well as cable or microware internet configurations. He was invited by MyworldOnline in UK to design internet backbone for postwar Liberia in 2004. During his days in the ISP industry he set up and managed 62 companies connectivity to the Internet. Notable amongst them are Ghacem (wide area network linking Accra, Tema and Takoradi to Scancem (Oslo, Norway), Ecobank, Calbank, Tractor and Equip (wide area network), Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Coca Cola Ghana etc.

He has taught in some universities in Ghana. Core areas are Data Communications and Networks, Programming in various languages including C++, VB, C, Java. Other courses taught include Mobile App Development, Client -server application development, distributed programming, IoT, Web application development and Information Security. He has trained students also in Cisco programming, configurations of Error Correction Techniques among others. His main research areas are IoT, information security, mobile telephony security.

Janet E. A Tormeti joined Regent University as an Assistant Registrar working in the HR department, but currently working as the Project Manager of their Malaria Research Center. PAVON and lectures as well.

In 2007 she receives her Higher National Diploma from Accra Polytechnic now Accra Technical university and proceed to do a top up degree in BSc. In Management with Computer at the Regent University College of Science and Technology.

She further perused her Masters in Business Administration at Methodist University College and currently graduated with an LLB from Central University College.

Before joining Regent University, she was the HR and Administration Manager at Global Sourcing and Supply, and international Company that deals in Oil and logistics supply in Bahrain from 2009- early part of 2011.

From 2006-2008 she was the Administrative Assistant to Eurest Support Service, also an international company that deals in logistics and supply in Cyprus.

Janet is a positive minded person, confident and a goal getter. She understands the importance of good human relationship and have a strong interpersonal and communication skills.

We are happy to have you in the Pavon Team.

I am a Research Scientist and the Deputy Head of the Department of Immunophysiopathology & Infectious Diseases at Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal. I was initially trained during my Master II and PhD degrees in the field of molecular parasitology at both University Cheikh Anta Diop and Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal. I was then awarded an International Postdoctoral Fellowship by the French University Agency to pursue a first postdoctoral training at the University of Montpellier II in France, followed by a second postdoctoral at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which was linked with an internship at Harvard School of Public Health in USA. My field of specialization, coupled with traineeship experiences, is broad-based and inclusive of several focus areas relevant to molecular parasitology and host parasite interactions in malaria. My training is multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural (Africa, Asia, America, Europe) and involves extensive interactions with diverse teams and individuals. I have received several honors and awards for my academic achievements including a patent, and one of my major research finding has been the discovery of P. vivax in Senegal.

I am fully involved in training and capacity building activities of young scientists in collaboration with the research teams within the Institut Pasteur International network and other international collaborators. I have trained more than 10 Masters in biological science, 4 PhD students, and I am currently leading a group of 2 postdocs, 3 PhD students, 2 master students, 2 bachelor internship, and 4 research technicians.

Ruth is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana, Ghana. Ruth's academic background is in Parasitology with a concentration in molecular biology and immunology.

Most of her research activities have been on laboratory and field investigations on factors influencing differential susceptibility to infections focusing on transmission biology (gametocyte) of human Plasmodium species. She is addressing information gaps through basic biology to advance new therapeutic targets to prevent malaria transmission.

The work has provided fundamental insight into several key areas such as 1). Strategies to identify vector-borne infection reservoirs in a population to limit or prevent the infection spread. 2). Applying biological and environmental data relating to infection transmission in high-risk settings to mitigate clinical pathologies.

Moving forward, she is employing molecular and epidemiological data to investigate the contribution of chronic infections on dysregulation in immune and cellular systems and how they contribute to metabolic disorders.

To delineate the causative factors related to the upsurge of metabolic diseases that intertwine with infectious diseases in developing countries. Ruth looks forward to working in a team with progressive ideas from basic science to field application.

We are happy to have you in the Pavon Team.