Alfred Amambua-Ngwa is a Professor and MRC Investigator of Genetic Epidemiology of Infectious diseases, Disease Control and Elimination Theme, Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London Scholl of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRCG-LSHTM). He is also an International Fellow, Tree of life program, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK. He leads research projects on malaria population genomics, antimalarial resistance, insecticide resistance in the Anopheles vector and human genetic determinants of malaria severity in endemic populations. He coordinates the H3Africa Pan-African Malaria Genetic Epidemiology Network (PAMGEN), The Genomic surveillance of Malaria in West Africa Project (GSM) and supports several consortia, including the Pathogen Genomic Diversity Network Africa (PDNA), West African Network for TB, AIDS and Malaria (WANETAM) were he leads the malaria work package and three DELTAS programs (MARCAD, DELGEME and WACCBIP).
Prof Amambua-Ngwa earned a BSc, MSc and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Buea, Cameroon. His research defined immunopathogenic mechanisms of infections with Onchocerca volvulus. As an early Postdoc in the University of Buea’s Biotechnology Unit, he employed molecular techniques to identify and describe candidate Plasmodium falciparum antigens for blood stage vaccine development. He moved to MRCG at LSHTM in 2006 to focus on research in erythrocyte invasion pathways, expression and genetic diversity in malaria parasite erythrocyte invasion ligands in severe and mild malaria. This culminated in 2008 into malaria parasite population genetics and molecular epidemiology, which has defined genomic signatures of selection, and genetic correlates of responses to interventions and transmission, especially new drug combinations used in therapy or chemoprevention. He is currently combining parasite, human and Anopheles genetic variation analysis across Africa to elucidate host-parasite interactions determining the dynamics of malaria. Prof Amambua-Ngwa fellows He has overall contributed to 137 original publications, supervised 10 PhD students and supports 11 Postdoctoral fellows.
