Thursday, April 15, 2021

The African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI) will soon welcome its second cohort of ten fellows to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The post-doctoral training fellowship program, launched in 2019, is supported through a partnership of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under the auspices of the Coalition of African Research and Innovation (CARI). AESA is a funding, agenda-setting and scientific prioritization, and programme management initiative created in 2015 through a partnership of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)-hosting organisation, the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD),

Fellows chosen for the second cohort come from seven African countries: Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. They will focus their research on a broad range of research areas, including genetic diseases and stigma; HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis; malaria; the microbiome, respiratory infections and bioinformatics; pneumocystis and HIV-related opportunistic infections; protozoan parasites; and tuberculosis.

NIH institutes and centers hosting fellows include the NIH Clinical Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Cohort 2: African Postdoctoral Training Initiative Fellows and NIH Hosts (2021-2022)

Fellow: Dr. Oluwaremilekun Ajakaye
Home institution: Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Protozoan parasites

Fellow: Dr. Abdoulie Bojang
Home institution: Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit, Gambia
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Microbiome, respiratory infections, bioinformatics

Fellow: Dr. Benjamin Chimukangara
Home institution: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
Host institution: NIH Clinical Center
Research area: Pneumocystis, HIV-related opportunistic infections

Fellow: Dr. Chinwe Chukwudi
Home institution: University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Protozoan parasites

Fellow: Dr. Michael Frimpong
Home institution: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Ghana
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Microbiome, respiratory infections, bioinformatics

Fellow: Dr. Daniel Kiboi
Home institution: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Malaria

Fellow: Dr. Olivia Matshabane
Home institution: University of Cape Town, South Africa
Host institution: National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Research area: Genetic diseases, stigma

Fellow: Dr. Henrietta Mensah-Brown
Home institution: University of Ghana
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Malaria

Fellow: Dr. Nicholaus Mnyambwa
Home institution: National Institute for Medical Research, Muhimbili Centre, Tanzania
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: Tuberculosis

Fellow: Dr. Kenneth Ssebambulidde
Home institution: The Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University, Uganda
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Research area: HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis

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