Knowledge Generation

Our innovation addresses refugee youth mental health in urban humanitarian settings. Our research with urban refugee youth in Kampala, Uganda, found that 74% of young girls and 49% of young boys aged 16-24 reported depression symptoms. Knowledge gaps with refugee youth mental health include a) scalable, sustainable mental health literacy tools; b) digital tools; and c) stigma reduction. We address mental health literacy with urban refugee youth living in informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda.

Ali Sie of the Centre de Recherche en Sante de Nouna in Burkina Faso aims to demonstrate the feasibility of generating (baseline) data on the frequency of congenital anomalies in rural Africa, including on the variability of head circumference measurements, and for the development of first-line laboratory testing for infectious agents related to congenital anomalies.

Jesse Gitaka of Mount Kenya university in Kenya will employ a strategy that will transfer cutting edge CRISPR-based isothermal nucleic acid analysis technique for diagnosis of CuSTIs (curable sexually transmitted infections) onto fibre mats with smartphone readout enabling on-site pathogen analysis in resource-limited settings enabling prompt treatment alleviating prematurity, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

Sally Griffin of ICRH Mozambique in Mozambique aims to increase the involvement of men in maternal healthcare, by testing a gender- and culture-sensitive intervention to strengthen male involvement in antenatal care in Marracuene district in southern Mozambique.

Jo-Ann Passmore, Associate Professor of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, will pilot the formation of the vaginal microbiome research consortium in Africa (VMRC4Africa) by establishing a network of researchers and centers of excellence for conducting research and clinical trials to promote women’s health across the continent. Dr. Passmore uses immune biomarkers and microbial-based approaches to study HIV and HPV pathogenesis and prevention in African women.

Moses Obimbo Madadi, Clinician-Scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, will form a coalition of researchers and develop tools to study the vaginal microbiome and metabolites during pregnancy to help identify predictive biomarkers and intervention strategies for improving pregnancy outcomes in Kenya. Africa carries a high burden of severe pregnancy complications such as stillbirths and neonatal deaths. To address this, Dr.

Collen Masimirembwa, Professor and founding President and Chief Scientific Officer of the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology (AiBST), Zimbabwe, will generate a research and innovation ecosystem, including training scientists and establishing centers of excellence in genomic medicine research, for the sustainable development of genomic and pharmaceutical medicine capability in Africa. Dr. Masimirembwa is on a mission to achieve world-class drug discovery and development capability in Africa.

Mainga Hamaluba, Head of Clinical Research at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, will develop a pragmatic adaptive trial platform to evaluate key interventions for improving child survival in East Africa in real-life routine practice conditions as a faster and lower-cost alternative to traditional randomized controlled trials. Dr. Hamaluba has led a wide-range of complex clinical trials, including oversight of a complement of COVID-19 prevention and vaccine trials.

Maurício Barretto of Fiocruz in Brazil will integrate COVID-19 data from Brazil into existing harmonized datasets from over 500 million people across the world, to better inform public health strategies. International data on COVID-19 is needed to help lift the world out of the pandemic. However, there is little real-world data from South Asia or Brazil. They will map data from the COVID-19 surveillance database for the State of Bahia, which covers a population of 15 million people, to the common data model known as OMOP, which brings together disparate data into a common format.

Haroon Hafeez of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Pakistan will integrate COVID-19 data from Pakistan into existing harmonized datasets from over 500 million people across the world, to better inform public health strategies. International data on COVID-19 is needed to help lift the world out of the pandemic. However, there is little real-world data from South Asia or Brazil.