PANDORA brings together One Health infectious disease experts from the Global North and South, with skills in laboratory and clinical research, veterinary and social sciences and ethics.
Professor Francine Ntoumi Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale
Francine is Founder Director of the PANDORA-ID-NET. She is Associate Professor and Molecular Epidemiologist and is Researcher lecture at the University Marien Ngouabi in Brazzaville, Head of a Research Group at the University of Tübingen, in Germany and Director General of the Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale. Very committed to “Women in Science in Africa” leadership, she is Coordinator of PANDORA-ID-Net consortium and collaborates with Africa CDC, IRD, The African Academy of Sciences, WHO-AFRO.
She is responsible for Coordination, Administration, Communication, Advocacy and Networking and has been highly involved in the response to Chikungunya outbreak and preparedness to Ebola outbreak in the republic of the Congo. With regard to COVID-19 pandemic; she is engaged in the diagnostic, and research activities including the bulding of local prototype of respiration for emergency situation.
Research interests: Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea, Antimicrobial Resistance, Chikungunya, SARS-COV-2, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and capacity development
Professor Sir Alimuddin Zumla University College London
Sir Ali is Founder Director of the PANDORA-ID-NET consortium and a Co-Principal Investigator
Ali is dually qualified in Medicine(MBChB) and Science(PhD). He is accredited in internal medicine, infectious diseases and clinical immunology. He was born in Fort Jameson, Zambia (British Northern Rhodesia). As a BEIT Scholar he completed an MSc in Tropical Medicine(Distinction & Mugratroyd prize) and PhD(Alan Woodruff Medal) from The London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. After 4 years as senior registrar at the Hammersmith Hospital, RPMS, London, he spent 3 years as Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Houston, USA, & Visiting Professor at UTH in Lusaka, Zambia. He joined UCL in 1994 where he pioneered and championed the discipline of ‘Global Health’ at with significant effect winning numerous medals, awards and prizes for his effective global networks for tackling poverty related diseases and zoonotic pathogens with pandemic potential. He is a lead global advocate for developing fair and equitable North-South partnerships and ideated and developed the PANSORA-ID-NET consortium.
Ali is the recipient of the 2020 Mahathir Science Award in Tropical Medicine. Further details of his awards and honours can be found here.
Research Interests: Emerging and Re-Emerging infections with epidemic potential, TB, TB/HIV co-infections, coronaviruses (MERS-CoV,SARS-CoV), Tropical Diseases, Poverty-related diseases, Global health advocacy, Host-directed therapies
Professor Ayola Akim Adegnika Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné
Professor Adegnika is a full Professor of immuno-epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Tübingen in Germany and Director of the CERMEL in Gabon. He has a long-lasting experience in the fieldwork activities of basic and applied clinical research of helminthiasis, malaria, tuberculosis and bacteria. He had conducted as PI, or Co-PI, coordinator, several clinical trials of anti-infectious drugs and vaccines. In addition, he has excellent international collaborations worldwide. He is the main author and co-author of number of peer review publications and hold several grants in area of clinical trials, immunology, and epidemiology of infectious diseases studies. Member of CANTAM and PANDORA, networks, he is interested in a capacity building and mentorship.
Dr Ayodele A. Adedoja Fondation Congolaise Pour la Recherche Médicale
Ayodele is a group leader and postdoctoral researcher at Fondation Congolaise Pour la Recherche Médicale Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. He has worked on research projects in a Nigeria and Republic of Congo. Whilst his background is in medical parasitology (focusing on helminths and specifically the prevalence and control of schistosomiasis), he completed his Ph.D. on interactions between Plasmodium spp. and helminths (hookworm, Hymenolepis spp Enterobius vermicularis, Schistosoma haematobium) among school children in selected communities of Kwara State, Nigeria. As a postdoctoral researcher for PANDORA, he is interested in malaria, chikungunya, SARS-COV-2 and capacity development.
Research interests: SARS-COV-2, neglected tropical diseases, Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and capacity development
Dr Rashid Ansumana Njala University
Dr Rashid Ansumana is the Dean of the School of Community Health Sciences of Njala University in Sierra Leone and he also directs research at the Mercy Hospital Research Laboratory in Sierra Leone. Rashid holds a PhD in Tropical Medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool (UK), and has a passion for public health and infectious disease research in resource-poor settings.
Rashid has over 50 peered-reviewed publications on a diverse range of topics in infectious diseases including on Ebola, Lassa fever, Chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, malaria and antimicrobial resistance.
Rashid coordinates the PANDORA site in Sierra Leone which focuses mainly on Lassa fever and emerging or re-emerging infections. Rashid’s research footprint can be found at the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rashid_Ansumana/research
Research interests: non-malarial fevers, viral infections; diagnostics; surveillance
Professor Danny Asogun Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital
Danny is a Professor of Public health with interest in Infectious disease epidemiology and Social medicine at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma and Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Nigeria. As foundation director of the Institute of Lassa fever Research and Control in ISTH, he worked with national and international research partners in understanding the epidemiology, clinical manifestations and genomics of Lassa fever. He is a principle investigator and project manager for PANDORA.
His early postgraduate medical training in Public health medicine with the West African College of Physicians, made him a fellow of the college and thereafter became involved in Postgraduate medical training in Public health.
His most recent achievement at ISTH is the activation of the research system and currently serve as the Chief operations officer.
Research interests: Infectious disease epidemiology
Dr Matthew Bates University of Lincoln, UK & HerpeZ
Matthew is a senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of Lincoln (U.K) and founding director of HerpeZ in Zambia. His MSc and PhD training were in molecular virology (herpesviruses) but much of his early post-doctoral work was on tuberculosis. Currently funded research projects cover emerging infections, TB and cytomegalovirus (EDCTP) and neonatal sepsis (BMGF). His research group in Lincoln work on diagnostic development and molecular epidemiology in partnership with the HerpeZ team in Zambia, and with other collaborating African sites. Matthew is a busy educator, teaching on BSc, MBBS and MSc programmes, in addition to supervising PGR students. He is passionate about promoting career development of LMIC scientists, with many of his former mentees now in leadership roles.
Research interests: Diagnostics, clinical trials, infectious diseases & global health
Karishma Krishna Kurup Chatham House
Karishma is a Research Fellow at Chatham House, working on projects related to health security and One Health. Before moving to London, she worked as a technical consultant in the Epidemic Intelligence Service Program in India and as medical coordinator support for the MSF(OCBA), India. She holds an MPH in Epidemiology and Health systems, a Diploma in Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine under the RCP and medical degree (MBBS) from India. As part of PANDORA, Karishma participates in research activities, organizing workshops, and liaising with consortium partners.
Research interests: Disease surveillance, emergency preparedness and response, infectious disease, health systems, health technology assessment and epidemiology
Steve Diafouka Kietla Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale
Project manager Steve has a master's degree in economics and has worked for over many years in public and community health (malaria and TB-HIV co-infection), medical research and development projects as an administrator and auditor. Since June 2018, he has been the PANDORA-ID-NET project manager at the “Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale”, where he is responsible for preparing the technical and financial reports of all the sites for sending to the EDCTP, monitoring the implementation of project activities (deliverables), communication with partners, workshops and communication media (Flyers, brochure, kakemono, etc.), file monitoring and submission of protocols to ethics committees and ministries. It accompanies and supports the response and epidemiological surveillance missions of PANDORA-ID-NET on emerging and re-emerging diseases in the field.
Research interests: Project Management, Malaria, Co-infection TB/VIH, Chikungunya, Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and capacity building
Dr Deborah Ehichioya Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital
Deborah is currently a Research Fellow at the Training and Clinical Trial Centre at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Irrua, Nigeria. She is also a Faculty member at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria, where she teaches courses in Microbiology. Dr. Ehichioya has worked on several research projects on viral hemorrahagic fevers. Her doctoral and postdoctoral studies were on the molecular epidemiology of Lassa fever in Nigeria, where she sought to provide insight into the distribution and transmission of Lassa virus across Nigeria. Her research interest is in developing and deploying diagnostics for zoonotic and arboviral diseases of public health relevance in Nigeria. Dr. Ehichioya also has a passion for training and mentoring young researchers in science.
Research interests: Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, Zoonotic and Arboviral Diseases, Capacity Building
Dr Philip El-Duah Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Philip is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Institute of Virology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin and also affiliated with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research into Tropical Medicine (KCCR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has previously worked on antimicrobial resistance profiles of clinical isolates of E. coli as well as Treponema pallidum pertenue which causes yaws, a neglected tropical disease in Ghana. His PhD studies delved into the role of livestock as intermediate hosts for the transmission of coronaviruses with zoonotic potential. Philip’s role in PANDORA involves coordinating collaborative research activities between the Institute of Virology, Charité and KCCR looking into the influence of virus-specific diagnostics on the outcome of encephalitis in a resource-limited clinical setting.
Research interests: Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic viruses, epidemiology of viral diseases, laboratory diagnostics
Dr Linzy Elton University College London
Linzy is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Clinical Microbiology at UCL. She has worked on research projects in a number of countries, including Egypt, Tanzania and Uganda. She also worked as a scientific officer on a game reserve in South Africa, tracking and monitoring the health of the animals including lions, elephants, and black and white rhino. Whilst her background is in parasitology (focusing on helminths and specifically the prevalence and control of schistosomiasis), she completed her PhD on the role of biofilms in the transmission of Yersinia pestis in fleas and lice. As a postdoctoral researcher for PANDORA, she is interested in capacity development, antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis and science communication.
Research interests: Tuberculosis, plague, neglected tropical diseases, antimicrobial resistance and capacity development
Professor Audrey Gadzekpo University of Ghana
Audrey is PANDORA site principal investigator at the University of Ghana. Sge is an associate professor of communication studies with 27 years of experience in teaching, research and advocacy on the intersection between communication/media, and issues such as gender, governance, development, climate change and health. She has been involved in behavioural change communication initiatives, and campaigns on gender empowerment, anti-corruption, health promotion and environmental governance. Her publications on health and environment include: Waldman, L., Gadzekpo, A. and MacGregor, H. (2016) Responding to Uncertainty: Bats and the Construction of Disease Risk in Ghana in Bardosh, K. (Ed), One Health Science, politics and zoonotic disease in Africa. and Gadzekpo A , Tietaah G. & Segtub, M. (2018) Mediating the Climate Change Message: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) of Media Practitioners in Ghana, African Journalism Studies.
Research interests: Communication/Media, Gender, development, governance, Health and climate change
Dr Muzamil Mahdi Abdel Hamid Institute of Endemic Diseases
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.
Research interests: Malaria, arboviruses, antimicrobial resistance and capacity development
Professor David Heymann Chatham House
David is a medical epidemiologist, Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House’s Centre for Universal Health and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. From 1989 to 2009 he held various leadership positions at WHO, and in 2003 headed the WHO global response to SARS. In 1976, after spending two years working in India on smallpox eradication, David was a member of the CDC (Atlanta) team to investigate the first Ebola outbreak in DRC and stayed on in sub-Saharan Africa for 13 years in various field research positions on Ebola, monkeypox, Lassa Fever, malaria and other tropical diseases. At PANDORA, David is interested in capacity building and translating evidence into policy.
Research interests: Infectious diseases, global health capacity building, epidemiology
Irabi Kassim Uliza Ifakara Health Institute
Irabi holds a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication Engineering from The University of Dodoma in Tanzania, but he concentring in software development. He working at Ifakara Health Institute(IHI) as in-house software developer and data manager. He expert in software development, web design, mobile app development, design data collection tools for research by using ODK (Open Data Kit) and REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), data management, analysis and visualisation by using STATA, Python and R programming.
In the PANDORA project he works as software developer whose responsibilities is to develop the surveillance system which will be responsible to provide the quick response about infectious disease outbreaks.
Research interests: Surveillance system development for diseases outbreak
Dennison Kizito Uganda Virus Research Institute
Dennison is a laboratory coordinator for the PANDORA network and study coordinator for the CCHFV project at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe. He graduated with a MSc in Biomedical Laboratory Sciences and Management at Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda. He has worked on various research projects on immunoepidemiology of infectious disease, vaccines and helminths in the tropics, Ebola and Marburg serodiagnostics and therapeutics development collaborating with research teams in a number of countries, including The Gambia, Israel, United Kingdom, Denmark and Uganda. He also worked as a scientific officer and Laboratory Manager on a Co-Infections Studies Programme, Department of Immunology, MRC/UVRI& LSHTM Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe-Uganda. He is currently, enrolled for a PhD programme at Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda studying serodiagnostics of arboviral infections using Phage display technology and NGS targeting disease-diagnostic antibodies and their cognate specific viral epitopes.
As a Laboratory Coordinator for PANDORA, he is also interested in molecular epidemiology and virology of filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg), Flaviviruses (yellow fever, Zika, Dengue) and Chikungunya infections, surveillance of arboviral infections and haemorrhagic viral infections, diagnostics development and capacity building of research teams in epidemiology of emerging and remerging zoonotic infections.
Research interests: Development of sero-diagnostic technologies, surveillance and epidemiology of emerging and re-emerging arboviral infectious diseases, i.e. Aedes aegypti transmitted viral infections (Zika, Yellow fever, Dengue, Chikungunya), and Zoonotics such as CCHFV, Ebola and Marburg, and SARS-CoV-2 infections and capacity development
Professor Timothy McHugh Univeristy College London
Tim is director of the UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Professor of Medical Microbiology and PANDORA co-investigator.
A key theme is the improved diagnosis and treatment of microbial infections with particular reference to antimicrobial resistance. The emphasis is on respiratory infection, particularly tuberculosis as well as the microbiome and resistome in patients with chronic lung disease. A key element of this work is supporting the development of laboratory facilities for high consequence pathogens, recently leading to a role in the COVID-19 response.
Tuberculosis projects cover the spectrum of science from transcriptomic analysis of bacterial responses to antibiotic treatment through to clinical and operational research. The Centre provides expertise and infrastructure for the delivery of TB treatment trials.
The team provides training for laboratory scientists, both on site in London or global partners, through participation in networks such as PanACEA and PANDORA-ID-NET, to enhance skills in microbiology laboratories.
Research interests: TB, Respiratory infection, high consequence infection, diagnostics
Dr Sayoki Godwin Mrinde Mfinanga National Institute for Medical Research
Sayoki is a global health and clinical research expert working for the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Tanzania. He is a medical doctor and epidemiologist, as he holds a Degree of Medicine (MD) and a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Medical Epidemiology focusing on tuberculosis and HIV. Mfinanga supervises and mentors fellows at a junior and mid-career level in various local and international academic and non-academic institutions. He has published over 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine. He has expertise in epidemiology, clinical trials, and public health surveillance for infectious diseases.
Sayoki is a Director and Chief Research Scientist for NIMR Muhimbili Cenre, Honorary Professor of Global Health, at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Honorary Lecturer at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences.
He is leading several scientific research networks in Africa. He is Deputy Director -UK NIHR Global Health Research Group on prevention and management of non-communicable diseases and HIV-infection in Africa, Deputy Director for Afrique one ASPIRE consortium, and Coordinator of TB node of excellence in East Africa under East Africa Consortium for Clinical Research (EACCR2).
He has led/is leading several multi countries clinical trials and contributed to national and global policies in management, prevention, and control, mainly in TB and HIV. Also, he has research experience in other scientific topics, including non-communicable diseases, zoonosis, maternal, and child health (immunizations).
He won several research grants and scientific awards, including the NIMR Best Journal Publishing Scientist Award and American Thoracic Society (ATS) certificate of Scientific Merit.
Research interests: Designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating interdisciplinary research projects, including clinical trials, biomedical research, disease surveillance studies, health system and capacity assessments, policy-driven health surveillance, and health system improvement research.
Professor Ahmed Mudawi Musa Mohamed Institute of Endemic Diseases
Ahmed Mudawi Musa Mohamed is a professor of immunology and a physician (MRCPI) specialist in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine.
Professor Musa has cumulative experience in vaccines and new treatment modalities development for visceral leishmaniasis and Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis as an immunologist and a clinical Trialist. He joined the Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum in 2000 and since that he has been working as an immunologist and a clinician in the endemic diseases in both tertiary and primary care setting. Professor Musa was recently (31 Jan 2019) appointed as Honorary Professor in the Hull York Medical School (HYMS) in the United Kingdom. He is now giving specialist consultations in the diagnosis and management of various infectious diseases in Sudan. He promoted many MSc and Ph D students in immunology of infectious diseases mainly leishmaniasis and tuberculosis, virology and schistosomiasis. He was qualified in the University of Khartoum, university of London, the Royal College of Physicians in London and Ireland. He was the director of the Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum since Jan 2011 to December 2019 and the head of the department of clinical pathology & Immunology. Professor Musa is a regular speaker in local, regional and international medical and scientific conferences. His published work changed the guidelines of treatment of leishmaniasis. He published almost 100 publications in reputable journals (Researchgate.net, Ahmed Mudawi Musa) mainly on immunology, infectious and tropical diseases.
Professor Peter Mwaba
Peter is a consultant physician is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer and is the immediate past Dean of the faculty of Medicine at Lusaka Apex Medical University, the position he had held for two years. Professor Mwaba’s career spans over 29 years and has progressively combined roles as a Clinician, Academician, Researcher and Administrator.
Before his appointment as Chief Executive officer and Dean, Peter had served as Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Home Affairs for close to 7 years. Professor Mwaba served as the Managing Director of the largest health institution in Zambia, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) for three years. Previously he held the positions of head of department of Internal Medicine at the UTH and Senior Lecturer at University of Zambia (UNZA) School of Medicine, where he trained 15 physicians as specialists and also supervised research projects for many post graduate students. He is also a visiting Lecturer at the University College London Medical School. . He has also previously served as a Research fellow at the University College London Medical School Center for Infectious diseases and International health.
Professor Mwaba also distinguished himself as a Researcher especially on TB and HIV with over 136 publications tied to his name. He has written book chapters including one in the famous Manson’s Textbook on Tropical diseases. He has numerous awards including the Albert Chalmers medal where he became the first African to achieve this fete in 2005. Peter has special interest in capacity development and his main focus has been in diseases of poverty particularly HIV and tuberculosis. He has been one of the Directors of the UNZA-UCLMS project
Professor Mwaba serves on several national and international Technical committees and several Boards of Directors. His involved in the training of masters and PhD students.
Dr Esther Ngadaya National Institute for Medical Research
Esther is a principal research scientist and two times best scientist is employed by the National Institute for Medical Research. She is a doctor of medicine with Post graduate diploma in Health Economics, and PhD in Epidemiology. Esther has just completed post doc program. Her research focuses mainly on infectious diseases, however, she has done some works in non-communicable diseases as well. She is the head of department for Monitoring and Evaluation, and a chair of operational research for East Africa Public Health Laboratory Network Project, a project aiming at establishing a network of efficient, high quality, accessible public health laboratories. She has won several grants and published over 40 publications. Esther is a teacher, supervisor and a mentor.
Research interests: Infectious and non-infectious diseases and capacity building
Dr Franklyn Nkongho University of Lincoln & HerpeZ
Franklyn is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, U.K. His background is in Mycobacteriology and diagnostics, and has substantially contributed in the knowledge of bovine tuberculosis in Cameroon. He is part of Dr Matthew Bates’ research team working on diagnostic development and molecular epidemiology in partnership with HerpeZ, Zambia. As a postdoctoral researcher for PANDORA, he is interested in improving health and diagnostic capacity in LMICs through clinical trials and biomedical research on infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, neonatal sepsis and viral infections.
Research interests: Infectious and non-infectious diseases and capacity building
Dr Adesola Yinka-Ogunleye Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
Dr Adesola Yinka-Ogunleye is an Epidemiologist at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Abuja, Nigeria. She is a 2018/2019 Fellow of the African Public Health Leaders Fellowship, Chatham House, United Kingdom.
Adesola has extensive experience in disease surveillance and public health response to infectious diseases. Her research interest includes infectious disease transmission and One Health Approach in Disease control.
She leads One Health and the monkeypox Technical Working Group at the NCDC. Her works are published in peer-reviewed journals.
Research interests: Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Public health Surveillance and One Health
Professor Richard Phillips Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Richard is a Professor in Medicine at the School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientific Director of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He has a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, PhD in Infection and Immunity and is a Fellow of both the Ghana and West African College of Physicians. He has 25 years experience in the practice of Medicine and leads a vibrant Research Group investigating skin NTDs, HIV, TB, Hepatitis and Emerging Infections and coinfections.
He is coinvestigator on the PANDORA project at KNUST and directs the COVID19 response at KCCR which is a major testing centre in Ghana. He has successfully managed research projects and produced 160 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.
Research interests: Buruli ulcer, Skin NTDs, HIV, Mycobacterial Diseases, Emerging Infections, Hepatitis and Coinfection
Dr David Simons Royal Veterinary College
David is a medical doctor and current PhD student interested in emerging zoonotic infectious diseases. He studies the impact of land use change and infrastructural development on the population dynamics of host/reservoir species and the potential for subsequent transmission into humans. His work combines his previous experiences in biodiversity and conservation, human health and the epidemiology of infectious diseases. He plans to conduct rodent trapping activities, domestic livestock sampling and human epidemiological studies to investigate Lassa virus dynamics in Sierra Leone. This work will be conducted with PANDORA network collaborators from the UK, Sierra Leone and Germany.
Research interests: Emerging zoonotic infectious diseases, biodiversity and ecology, human health
Dr Calvin Sindato National Institute for Medical Research
Calvin is the Principal Research Scientist with the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research from 2004 to date. He served as One Health epidemiologist in the development of digital disease surveillance models. He applied his expertise in policy analysis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) drivers. Calvin led development of active surveillance plan for AMR in human-food producing animals in Tanzania. He is responsible for strengthening of event-based surveillance (EBS) initiatives in African Union Member States (AU-MS). Calvin has led development of COVID-19 EBS training module for AU-MS. He is involved in COVID-19 surveillance tools development. Calvin is a postdoctoral research associate at SUA for PANDORA, providing expertise in analytical epidemiology, socioecological system framework analysis and strengthening of disease surveillance systems.
Research interests: Risk mapping and modelling of infectious diseases of humans and animals, and strengthening of disease surveillance systems
Dr Augustina Angelina Sylverken Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Augustina is a Lecturer at KNUST and a Research Fellow at the KCCR where she leads the Virology team. She is interested in characterization of novel, emerging and re-merging viral pathogens as a proxy to viral zoonosis. Her PhD work focused on respiratory viruses in children and was the first to document the burden of Human Coronaviruses in children in Ghana. Later, as a Postdoctoral research scientist at the KCCR and the Institute of Virology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, she expanded her research to include the host switching capabilities and the transmission interfaces of Coronaviruses in wildlife, livestock and humans. As a Coordinator for the PANDORA Project at KNUST, she is interested in capacity building, one health issues, viral respiratory pathogens, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with epidemic potentials and general scientific issues.
Research interests: Respiratory viruses (Coronaviruses), emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, Viral zoonotic diseases, capacity building, Women and STEM, Antimicrobial resistance
Professor Thirumalaisamy P Velavan The University of Tübingen
Thirumalaisamy P. Velavan is a faculty and group leader at the Institute for Tropical Medicine at University of Tuebingen, Germany and leads distinct projects on molecular genetics of host-pathogen interactions, clinical trials, epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance and diagnostics. He has published more than 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals, with a cumulative impact factor of >500, with a h-index of 27. He is an associate editor in BMC Medical Genetics and Tropical Medicine and International health, and an editorial board member in Nature Scientific Reports. He also serves the review boards of international funding agencies in EU and worldwide.
Velavan is contributing to PANDORA specific work packages related to antimicrobial resistance, diagnostics, and in understanding SARS-Cov-2 viral dynamics.
Research interests: Infectious diseases, viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases, molecular diagnostics, capacity building
Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu University of Ghana
Dorothy is PANDORA Site Principal Investigator and the first female director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research
Research interests: Bacterial Infections, AMR, laboratory diagnosis, molecular epidemiology and capacity building
Professor Mohamed Osman University of Khartoum & University of York
Professor Mohamed Osman, BSc. MSc. PhD has a strong background in immunology, infectious diseases, clinical trials, and medical biotechnology. In-depth knowledge of immunology, infectious diseases and biotechnology both at theoretical and practical levels. Considerable research, teaching, and supervisory experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Awards and grants include
Minister of Higher Education Sudan,
MRC Global Challenges Research Fund Foundation Award:
MRC-UK: Proteomic studies on Leishmania Donvani and Mycobacterium tuberclosis
MRC-UK: Immunology of HHV8
Dr Isobella Honeyborne University College London
Isobella is the Scientific Project Manager for PANDORA.
She has a DPhil in CD8+ T cell responses to HIV-1 from University of Oxford and a Bachelors degree in Biochemistry and Biology from University of Keele. Her postdoctoral work included working on research in HIV and Tuberculosis. She has spent significant amounts of time setting up and coordinating scientific projects in Durban and Cape Town, South Africa.
Isobella coordinates PANDORA across the sites in a general Project Management context, supporting FRCM. She also has a role in supporting the scientific studies, help with preparing grant budgets, grant technical content and ethical proposals.
Research interests: Infectious diseases, HIV and Tuberculosis
Professor Sarah Edwards University College London
Sarah is a professor of bioethics. Based on work initially published in 2013 on study design and ethics of clinical experimentation during public health outbreaks, and hosting an international conference with WHO in June 2014, Professor Edwards has been closely involved in ethics and social sciences work during epidemics ever since. Her original work was the only relevant reference used by the then WHO ad hoc group on ethics and study design convened during the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014, and has now been cited by following international training and guidance documents by WHO.
She mentored Dr Raji Tajudeen, Director of the National Institutes for Public Health at the African CDC through his year-long Chatham House Fellowship to develop a 'bottom-up' policy framework on ethics of research during epidemics for Africa. She is also leading the External Technical Committee on Social Sciences for the African CDC, and is a member of WHO GOARN-R social science group, and EC funded SoNAR-GLOBAL.
Since Covid emerged, she is a member of the Covid-Clinical Research Coalition Ethics Working Group as well as running research into the experience of healthcare workers across different contexts and countries, into the host range of the virus, risk mitigation and anthroponosis, and into the use of preclinical experiments for risk assessments in clinical trials and assessing therapeutic potential of and access to repurposed treatments.
Dr Abdinasir Yusuf Osman Royal Veterinary College
Abdinasir Yusuf Osman is veterinary epidemiologist, and a public health researcher working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK. His research interests and approaches are at the interface between the agent and the host in the relevant environment at local and global levels. The application of epidemiologic techniques to understand the drivers and persistence of infectious diseases and to evaluate the cost effective intervention strategies to mitigate the force of infection and epidemics as well as associated risk factors are of particular interest. Examples include epidemiology of zoonotic diseases with emphasis on Rift Valley Fever, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), West Nile Virus and the ongoing COVID-19. Among bacterial diseases, Brucellosis, Tuberculosis, Campylobacter spp., E. coli, Listeria moncytogenes, and Salmonella spp are of particular focus.
Research interests: Epidemiology of zoonotic diseases, One Health, capacity building
Nathan Kapata HerpeZ
Nathan is PANDORA site lead at HerpeZ. He is a medical doctor specialized in tropical medicine, infectious diseases and public health with more than twenty years of post-graduation experience. He has contributed significantly to medicine, epidemiology, disease control and health systems strengthening. He has experience managing multi-sectoral teams; have worked at all levels of care in the public sector from district, provincial and central levels. He has served in different portfolios at lower and senior management levels.
Nathan has coordinated various national public health programs including, communicable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV, STIs, laboratory, epidemics preparedness and response, as well as research.
Research interests: Tuberculosis, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, training and capacity building
Dr Edgar Simulundu HerpeZ
Edgar is a Virologist with expertise in molecular epidemiology of viral infectious diseases of veterinary and public health significance. He serves as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zambia School of Veterinary Medicine as well as Scientific Director at Macha Research Trust. Dr Simulundu advocates for the “One Health” concept because he strongly believes that the application of effective prevention and control strategies of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases is largely dependent on practical collaboration and bridging of gaps among environmental, veterinary and human health fields. He has conducted research on a wide range of zoonotic and transboundary infectious diseases in Africa including Marburg, Ebola, Influenza, West Nile fever, Rift Valley fever, and COVID-19 among others.
Research interests: Veterinary Virology, Emerging and re-emerging viral infectious diseases
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