Project Title

KEMRI-Wellcome Trust - Kilifi Kenya

Project Objectives

I intend to receive specific training in the following areas: (1) Clinical research and clinical trial design: Clinical study or trial is fundamental in biomedical and clinical research. Clinical research is a bridge to connect the bench to the bedside, and in translating biomedical research to generate clinical evidence to make new or update clinical practice guidelines. My placement at the host institution will provide the exposure and experience needed by early-career researchers to implement clinical study successfully. The training may help me to cover relevant concepts in Epidemiology, Medical Statistics, Clinical Pharmacology and Molecular biology. It will help me to gain competencies in protocol development and systematic review. I will also gain mastery in quality control and clinical trial monitoring. (2) Product development, regulation and safety issues: As a pharmaceutical scientist, I plan to gain further knowledge and skills related to drug development, formulation, quality management and testing of drugs in animals and human. One of the chosen organisations assembles clinical, laboratory and epidemiological data which are analysed to get reliable innovative resources and evidence-driven responses to the major challenges of poverty-related infectious diseases and neglected infections. While the remaining two are strong organisation in design and development of vaccines which may provide enabling environments to learn the development and clinical assessments of vaccine candidates

Host Organisation

EDCTP Project Call

EDCTP Clinical Research & Development Fellowship (R&D F)

Study Design

Placement

Project Summary

Effective control of infectious diseases affecting the most vulnerable populations relies on accurate gathering and interpretation of scientific data from clinical, health-related or epidemiological research. I want my research career to contribute to safe and effective treatment of poverty-related infectious diseases and emerging infections affecting developing countries, particularly among the infants, lactating and pregnant women. Thus, my aim during this fellowship is to advance my expertise in clinical research and to acquire new skills on product development. The fellowship will be committed to acquirement of experience and exposure on clinical trials and to gain knowledge in handling data from clinical research, statistics of individual patient data meta-analyses and systematic reviews. During the period, I intend to gain competencies on study design, data collection, data analysis and data management. It will also help me to build intellectual capacity to identify epidemiological problems and pharmacologic issues related to the products for the treatment of poverty-related infectious diseases. My placement for 12 months at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme, Kilifi, Kenya will allow me to interact effectively with scholars and researchers within the host institution and enhance transfer of modern research skills to establish myself in my home institution post-fellowship.

Project Title

Developing genomics expertise at Copenhagen in order to examine to what extent dhps-431V mutation may influence the protective efficacy of IPTp-SP (DEEM-FIT)

Project Objectives

The aims are to detect P. falciparum positivity at delivery and pregnancy outcome in participants who must have received three or more doses of IPTp_SP.

Host Organisation

EDCTP Project Call

EDCTP-AREF Preparatory Fellowships (PF)

Study Design

observational study

Project Summary

Evaluation of malaria prevention strategies during pregnancy relies on precise diagnosis of parasite and monitoring of antimalarial resistance using genomic techniques. However, the expertise on genomic is rare in the malaria-endemic sub-Saharan African. My aim is to advance my expertise in clinical research and malaria parasite genomics by attending a training at the Center for Medical Parasitology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. During my placement at Copenhagen, I will enhance my expertise on techniques such as DNA isolation, PCR amplification and Sanqer sequencing. This is for the purpose of conducting a clinical investigation on sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance. I will set up a pilot study and analyse a small number of samples (sample load of 100-150) to pinpoint the trends of newly emerging mutation, design qPCR and sequencing methods and to generate a small dataset to attract a bigger funding for the intended follow-on project. I propose a 3-month training in Copenhagen with a focus on receiving modern genomic techniques and participation in short course. I will transfer the skills to my home organization and introduce the skills to other colleagues through peer training and workshop. Malaria in pregnancy (MiP) continues to be a significant public health issue, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The coverage of pregnant women with three or more doses of intermittent preventive treatment using sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) is recommended to prevent risks associated with MiP in moderate-to-high transmission settings. Evidence has recently become available supporting the emergence of a novel Pfdhps-431V mutation in Nigeria. This new mutation may further confound the existing SP-resistance; thus, the intended follow-on project aims to assess the influence of Pfdhps-431V mutation on the protective efficacy of SP during pregnancy. I plan to design an observational study to be implemented after the preparatory fellowship among adult women attending the ante-natal clinic. The aims are to detect P. falciparum positivity at delivery and pregnancy outcome in participants who must have received three or more doses of IPTp_SP. We will attempt to check the presence of existing and new Pfdhps/Pfdhfr mutations in the samples positive for P. falciparum using a quantitative PCR (qPCR). The prevalence of novel Pfdhps-431V mutant and other Pfdhps/Pfdhfr resistance alleles among the study population will be estimated. The significance of the resistance genes on the efficacy of SP will be described by looking at its associations with the reported IPTp use, P. falciparum infection, maternal anaemia, low birth weight, and preterm delivery.

Current Organisation

Obafemi Awolowo University

Current Job Title

Senior Lecturer

Biography

Publications