Ongoing research activities

Ongoing research

• EDTCP-Block-Rabies: Post-exposure prophylaxis against rabies with high block-chain coverage to reach zero deaths in Africa
• R21 : Effectiveness of the Diabetes Prevention Program in Urban Bamako, Mali: Small Steps, Big Rewards : This project uses participatory and locally informed research to adapt an evidence-based diabetes prevention program for use in urban Bamako in West Africa, where the risk for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases is significantly rising
• PREVAC: Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines  (Randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial in West Africa to assess the safety and ability of three different Ebola vaccine strategies to stimulate an immune response to the virus that may protect against Ebola virus disease
• ATSB: Attractive Target Sugar Baits (The primary outcome measure is the incidence rate of malaria clinical cases assessed among people aged six months to less than 15 years in Kenya and Zambia, and age five years to less than 15 years in Mali. A clinical case is defined as presence of an axillary temperature of >37.5o Celsius or self-reported fever within the past 48 hours, plus a positive malaria rapid diagnostic test.
• ICEMR: International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research (Research for effective implementation of SMC strategy, pre- and post-referral management of severe malaria in Mali.
• R01 (M. AFRICANIUM): Host-Pathogen Interactions in a Failing Global lineage of MTBC: Mycobacterium africanum is an important cause of human tuberculosis M. Africanum in West Africa with decreased virulence and in vivo, appears to be a failing pathogen on a global level. Study of this unique host-pathogen relationship may provide fundamental insight into interactions between humans and Mycobacterium.
• EDCTP DIAMA: Diagnostics for Multidrug resistant tuberculosis in Africa. This study aims to address current gaps in the diagnosis and management of patients with Multi-Drug-Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB). It has established a cohort of patients who have failed TB treatment who are tested with FDA assay which identifies viable bacteria during the new treatments.
• U54: The Center for Innovation in Point-of-Care Technologies for HIV/AIDS at Northwestern University (C-THAN)

The overall goal of this program is to support the development of POC technologies to promote high priority topics of NIH HIV/AIDS research, including: Reducing HIV incidence by improving screening, detection and treatment monitoring related to HIV, HIV drug resistance, and antiretroviral drug levels; Diagnosing HIV-associated comorbidities which include tuberculosis (TB), non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM), hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C (HCV). The Reducing health disparities by developing testing technology that can function in underserved community settings; and Training of the workforce able to translate POC technologies from Research & Development to implementation.

• START: This trial was designed to address the question: In HIV-1 (subsequently referred to as HIV) infected asymptomatic participants with a CD4+ count greater than 500 cells/mm3, is immediate use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) superior to deferral of ART until the CD4+ count declines to 350 cells/mm3 or AIDS develops in terms of morbidity and mortality? The study is being conducted at 237 sites in 35 countries. Global enrolment closed with 4,688 participants enrolled.
• ECERID: Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics of Emerging Infectious Diseases, This study aims identify the causative agents and associated clinical characteristics of unexplained febrile diseases in adult and pediatric patients in Mali
• D2EFT: To identify pathogens, associated clinical features of unexplained febrile illnesses, and short-term disease outcomes in Mali in adults and children.
• R03 (Mali 12): Clinical Evaluation of a New Highly Sensitive Multiplex qPCR for Detecting tuberculosis and Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria. This project aims to evaluate in patients, a new highly sensitive molecular multiplex assay, that has the potential to significantly improve the management of patients and to reduce transmissions of Mycobacterial diseases, including tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections.
• R21: Metabolic and Immune Consequences of Antibiotic Related Microbiome Alterations during TB Treatment. The overall goal of this project is to determine the longitudinal dynamics of the microbiome immune metabolic functions during and after tuberculosis therapy, and to determine the evolution of microbiome linked inflammatory markers during and after tuberculosis therapy.
• K43 Fogarty Global Emerging Leader Award:  This is a career development research grant looking at the role of sex steroid hormones on immune responses to Tuberculosis. The grant is funded by The Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the Office of the Director (OD) of the NIH.

Ongoing Research Training

• R25 This application proposes to enhance research ethics education and research in Mali with a program for research ethics capacity building via collaboration between the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako and George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health

• D43 (Research training program on control of malaria and neglected tropical diseases in Mali): The overall goal of this program is to strengthen training and research capacity in malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), with a particular focus on operational and implementation research. The ultimate outcome of this training will be to strengthen Mali’s capacity to conduct relevant biomedical research and translate the results into successful public health tools and policies.

• U2R Bioinformatics Research Training: The overall goal of this project is to build a sustainable bioinformatics research training program that will foster genomics approaches to address global health issues in Africa.

• D43 (HIV and mycobacterial): The Mali Research Training Program in HIV-Associated Mycobacterial Infection.

The goals of the training are to produce and enhance the careers of laboratory investigators capable of performing advanced research on the molecular biology, genetics, immunology, and microbiology of HIV-associated mycobacterial infection. In addition, we want to train laboratory and clinical scientists to perform biostatistical analyses for epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory studies of HIV-associated mycobacterial infection, and train clinician investigators to perform research on interventions for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV and associated mycobacterial infection.