Stellah Mpagama
Stellah Mpagama, MD, MSc, PhD. Dr. Mpagma is the Director of Research and Innovation at the national referral hospital for drug-resistant TB and the regional infectious diseases center of excellence, Kibong’oto Infectious Diseases Hospital. Her research focuses on molecular diagnostics for tuberculosis and implementation science. Dr. Mpagama serves as the Principal Investigator for this postdoctoral training grant along with Dr. Heysell, but is available as an individual co-mentor in the following areas:
- molecular diagnostics for tuberculosis
- tuberculosis interventional studies
- drug-resistant tuberculosis
Scott Heysell
Scott Heysell, MD, MPH. Dr. Heysell is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases and International Health, at the University of Virginia. Dr. Heysell’s research focuses on improving tuberculosis outcomes for people with HIV, diabetes mellitus and/or malnutrition through understanding pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, diagnostics development, and health systems integration, and doing so through implementation studies or clinical trials. Dr. Heysell serves as the Principal Investigator for this postdoctoral training grant along with Dr. Mpagama, but is available as an individual co-mentor in the following areas:
- tuberculosis interventional studies
- malnutrition and enteric diseases impact on pharmacodynamics
- point-of-care assay design and implementation
Blandina Mmbaga
Blandina Mmbaga MD, MMed, PhD. Dr. Mmbaga is Associate Professor of Paediactric and Child Health, KCMUCo, Adjunct Associate Professor Duke Global Health Institute, Adjunct Research Faculty at University of Virginia, and Director of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI) and director of Research and Consultancies at KCMUCo. A pediatrician, Dr. Mmbaga is dedicated to studies of child health including those in tuberculosis, HIV and malnutrition/ diarrheal diseases and mental health in adolescence. She has led many of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and IMPAACT studies at KCMC Hospital and was a member of IMPAACT Vaccine Immunology Scientific Committee for six years (2006-2012). Dr. Mmbaga is a Co-Director of the D43 in Socio Behavioral Science (SBS) training grant and a Director for the D43 Training Grant on Trauma and Injury-TRECK. She is also a Co-Director of the East African Consortiusm for Clinical Research (EACCR) centre of excellence with KCRI being a training node for the network. Dr. Mmbaga serves as Lead Educator for this postdoctoral training grant and core faculty member, but is also available as an individual co-mentor in the following areas:
- maternal and child health
- clinical trials in tuberculosis and HIV
- vaccine efficacy
Tania Thomas
Tania Thomas, MD, MPH. Dr. Thomas is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia in Infectious Diseases and Director of the Traveler’s Clinic. She trained in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics before specializing in Infectious Diseases with research focused in pediatric tuberculosis. Dr. Thomas currently examines immunologic responses to TB in children with a goal of harnessing the host-response as biomarkers for disease activity and treatment response. She has active cohorts related to this work located in Haydom, Tanzania with faculty from KCMUCo/KCRI and other locations in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines. She is currently investigating the role of the microbiome in children treated for TB across the spectrum of nutritional status in Tanzania. Along with other core faculty from UVA, Dr. Marcel Durieux, Dr. Thomas will integrate UVA undergraduate and graduate students into the postdoctoral trainees’ teams utilizing University of Virginia’s eGlobal approach. Dr. Thomas is also available as an individual co-mentor in the following areas:
- pediatric tuberculosis immunology
- biomarkers for tuberculosis disease state
- pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics in pediatric tuberculosis
Marcel Durieux
Marcel Durieux, MD, PhD. Dr. Durieux is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Virginia, and a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Global Health Equity. Dr. Durieux has considerable experience in East Africa, most recently in Rwanda. Dr. Durieux has developed the eGlobal program which paired undergraduates remotely via regular videoconference with 30 trainees from the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, working on 15 projects. Along with Dr. Thomas, Dr. Durieux will serve to integrate students from the eGlobal program into the postdoctoral trainee’s research team, and as a core program faculty, will also serve on the committee for monitoring and evaluation. Dr. Durieux is not anticipated to serve as an individual co-mentor.
Emmanuel Mpolya
Emmanuel Mpolya, MSc, PhD. Dr. Mpolya is a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics and Applied Epidemiology in the Department of Global Health and Biomedical Sciences at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha, Tanzania. Dr. Mpolya’s areas of research are in One-Health, examining the epidemic and economic dynamics at the animal-human interface, and in infectious diseases and host interaction. Dr. Mpolya performs statistical training assessment and skills development plan for each postdoctoral trainee’s Individual Research Leadership Plan, and as a core program faculty, will also serve on the committee for monitoring and evaluation. Dr. Mpolya is not anticipated to serve as an individual co-mentor.
Richard L. Guerrant
Richard L. Guerrant, MD. Dr. Guerrant was the former director of University of Virginia Global Infectious Disease Training Program and Founder of the Center for Global Health Equity. Dr. Guerrant’s career spans nearly 5 decades beginning with research and training experience abroad in Africa (in central Kasai Province, Congo, in 1967, and he launched ongoing collaborations with University of Venda (UNIVEN) in Limpopo South Africa in 2003), Asia (as an NIH Clinical Associate at the Cholera Research Laboratory, now icddr,b in Dhaka, Bangladesh 1970–71) and in South America (initially in Florianopolis in southern Brazil and then in Fortaleza continuously since 1978 with the partnership with the Federal University of Ceará that has become a model of sustained international research and collaboration). Dr. Guerrant’s research broadly focuses on the interactions of malnutrition and enteric infections on child health and development. Dr. Guerrant serves as an advisory role to the Principal Investigators, Drs. Mpagama and Heysell, but is also available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- pathogenesis of enteric infections
- clinical consequences of enteric infections and malnutrition on child health
Eric Houpt
Eric Houpt, MD. Dr. Houpt is the Jack Gwaltney Jr. Professor and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at University of Virginia. Dr. Houpt’s group has revolutionized the use of molecular diagnostics for pathogen identification and disease attribution. He has partnered to establish or scale up laboratories for molecular diagnostics studies on 4 continents and >10 countries. Dr. Houpt has ongoing projects in multiple locations in Tanzania including at KCRI and Haydom Global Health Research Centre. Dr. Houpt is available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- molecular diagnostics
- clinical tuberculosis
- drug susceptibility testing
- assay development
Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore, MD. Dr. Moore is a Professor in Infectious Diseases at University of Virginia and a Professor of Internal Medicine at Mbarara University of Science and Technology where he has worked in Uganda for over 15 years. He is Director of the UVA—Mbarara Research and Training Collaboration, where he has been responsible for coordinating site activities in clinical studies of sepsis, meningitis and tuberculosis. Dr. Moore has advised the sepsis working group at the World Health Organization in the treatment of sepsis, and leads a current clinical trial in Uganda and Tanzania on early interventions for tuberculosis treatment in HIV related sepsis. Dr. Moore is available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- predictive disease modeling
- interventions for sepsis
- clinical tuberculosis including meningitis
Mark DeBoer
Mark DeBoer, MD. Dr. DeBoer is a Professor and Pediatric Endocrinologist at University of Virginia interested in long-term metabolic sequelae related to early childhood infectious diseases, including the increasingly understood link from metabolic syndrome to tuberculosis disease. Dr. DeBoer has had NIH-funded projects in pursuing both basic science and clinical research investigations, and along with Dr. Mduma from Haydom Global Health Research Centre led the ELICIT study of early interventions for improving childhood growth and infections in Tanzania. Dr. DeBoer is available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- obesity, inflammation, and Type 1 diabetes and their translation to susceptibility to chronic infections
- nutritional interventions to improve childhood health and development
James Platts-Mills
James Platts-Mills, MD. Dr. Platts-Mills is an Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases at University of Virginia. Dr. Platts-Mills utilizes modern molecular tools to understand pathogen attribution, transmission and disease dynamics. Dr. Platts-Mills works closely with the UVA-Tanzania collaborative in rural Haydom (Haydom Global Health Research Centre) and Moshi (KCMUCo/KCRI), directly in employing new molecular diagnostic techniques, and novel statistical analyses. Dr. Platts-Mills is available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- childhood diarrhea, enteric infection and malnutrition
- utilizing molecular tools for pathogen attribution and disease dynamics
- surveillance of infectious diseases
Rebecca Scharf
Rebecca Scharf, MD, MPH. Dr. Scharf is an Associate Professor of Developmental Pediatrics and Global Health at the University of Virginia, and Director of the International Child Development Clinic and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Congenital Cardiac Disease Clinic. Following formative clinical and research experiences in Ecuador, Haiti, Zimbabwe and Zambia, she joined worked on the Malnutrition and Enteric Diseases (Mal-ED) study at University of Virginia including sites in South Africa, and Tanzania (Haydom Global Health Research Centre). Dr. Scharf is available for co-mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- interventional research to improve parent-child interaction
- language stimulation and overall child health
- malnutrition and enteric diseases neurocognitive sequelae
Margaret Kosek
Margaret Kosek, MD. Dr. Kosek is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at University of Virginia with 20 years of international experience in the conduct of public health research and research capacity building. Dr. Kosek has led interdisciplinary research projects in the fields of the human microbiome, calicivirus infection and acquired immunity, and metabolomics associated with enteropathy and undernutrition. While Dr. Kosek’s work has been largely in Peru, she is available to pair with a Tanzanian mentor and/or provide externship in her lab in University of Virginia or Peru if a postdoctoral fellow were to share her interests:
- enteropathy and child health
- metabolomics
- climate/environmental determinants enteric disease
Hadija Semvua
Hadija Semvua, PhD. Dr. Semvua is Chief Pharmacist, KCRI, and a Senior Lecturer, KCMUCo. Dr. Semvua received her PhD in tuberculosis pharmacology from Radboud University in the Netherlands and currently specializes in the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of anti-tuberculosis medications in unique populations such as pediatrics, malnourished and those living with HIV. She is Principal Investigator of a pharmacokinetics study of higher dose rifampin in pediatric tuberculosis in both Moshi (KCRI) and Haydom (Haydom Global Health Research Centre). Dr. Semvua also participates in the East African Consortium for Clinical Research to create networking and capacity for researchers to conduct clinical trials. She is available for mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- pharmacology
- pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics
- treatment trials
Marion Sumari-de Boer
Marion Sumari-de Boer, PhD. Dr. Sumari-de Boer is a Senior Scientist at KCRI. Dr. Sumari-de Boer is an epidemiologist and medical anthropologist by profession with a PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her research activities include epidemiology and drivers of tuberculosis infection and disease in Tanzania, mHealth interventions, data science, and career development for Tanzanian scientists. She is currently leading projects in digital tools development and impact analyses. She is available for mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- mHealth
- digital technologies to improve engagement in care
Gibson Kibiki
Gibson Kibiki, MD, MMed, PhD. Dr. Kibiki is a former Professor of Medicine at KCMUCo, was Founding Director of KCRI, former Executive Secretary of the Health Research Commission for the East African Community, and currently Chief Executive of the Africa Research Excellence Fund. Dr. Kibiki has participated in a large part of all interventional tuberculosis projects in Tanzania in the past 15 years. He is available for co-mentorship with other faculty in the following areas:
- tuberculosis pharmacology
- tuberculosis immunology and immunodiagnostics
- Infectious diseases, capacity development, Clinical Trials, research skills and leadership, as well as health management
Estomih Mduma
Estomih Mduma, DLSHTM, MSPH, Ph.D (Senior Public Health and Clinical Researcher). Trained over 40 years ago in Clinical Medicine and working as a field clinician for a decade in TB in Northern Tanzania, Dr. Mduma ultimately started the Haydom Global Health Research Centre in Tanzania, building its link to KCMUCo/KCRI where he teaches occasionally, and helped to transform a rural district hospital into a major site for childhood malnutrition and tuberculosis work in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Mduma has led projects on the etiologies of childhood acute febrile illness and diarrheal disease, as well as interventional studies for malnutrition and child growth/development. He is available for mentorship of trainees in the following areas:
- diarrhea and malnutrition etiology
- interventional trials for malnutrition and child health
- pediatric tuberculosis diagnostics and treatment
