Dr. Charles Agoti

Dr Charles Agoti is a Mid Career Research Fellow (MCRF) under the IDeAL Programme. Prior receiving the fellowship Charles was working as Postdoctoral Bioinformacian with the Virus Epidemiology and Control (VEC) group within the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Kilifi Programme. For more than 10 years,

Charles’ primary focus was generating and analyzing respiratory virus genomes to improve understanding on the underlying transmission and evolutionary patterns that allow persistence of these pathogens in host populations. Charles has made significant contributions into the understanding of the nature and variant composition of local seasonal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, a leading cause of childhood pneumonia) epidemics and the role of genetic variation in RSV repeat infections.

The IDeAL MCRF supports Charles to extend this transmission genomics work to medically important enteric viruses. Specifically, Charles will be investigating viral diarrhea genomics pre and post-rotavirus vaccination in Kenya to understand virus source, transmission patterns and vaccine impact.

Dr. Sandra Chaves

Currently Dr. Chaves is the Influenza Program Director at the CDC Kenya office.
Dr. Chaves completed her medical degree in Brazil followed by several years of clinical practice in tropical countries, working with a broad spectrum of infectious diseases. In 1997, Dr. Chaves completed a Master of Science in Communicable Disease Epidemiology degree program from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, working as a medical epidemiologist in various settings afterwards, including Bolivia, Brazil, East Timor and The Netherlands, both at local and national levels, through which she has acquired extensive practical experience in public health.

In 2002, Dr. Chaves joined the CDC, and has since worked with viral vaccine preventable diseases (varicella and zoster viruses, viral hepatitis and more recently influenza), investigating issues related to long-term vaccine-induced immunity and disease severity. Dr. Chaves joined the Influenza Division, in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in 2009 and moved to Kenya in 2015. As the Influenza Program Director in Kenya, she oversees a large research portfolio as well as programmatic activities implemented in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health. She has been the author or co-author of more than 80 papers and book chapters.

Prof. James Nokes

Email : JNokes@kemri-wellcome.org

James Nokes is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick. Since 2001 he has been based full time at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, Kilifi coastal Kenya. James trained in Zoology (BSc) followed by a PhD in virus epidemiology. His principle interests are the transmission dynamics and control of human viral pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus and rotavirus. The focus of his WT Senior Investigator Award is the integration of epidemiological and genomic data to infer transmission pathways at different scales of interest from the household to countrywide. His research group is inter-disciplinary using molecular, phylogenetic, immunological, mathematical, statistical and field approaches to address key questions relating to respiratory and enteric virus persistence, transmission, and intervention.

Prof. Gilbert Kokwaro

Prof. Tom Williams

Affiliations:

KEMRI – Wellcome Trust, Kenya

Imperial College London, UK 

Tom is Professor of Haemoglobinopathy Research at Imperial College, London. Tom has worked in Kilifi since May 2000, where he now directs a programme of human genetic research with a focus on polymorphisms of the red blood cell. He obtained his medical degree at Westminster Medical School in the University of London in 1985 and subsequently trained in Paediatrics and Tropical Medicine at a range of London hospitals including Westminster Children’s Hospital, University College, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Imperial College. He obtained his PhD on the genetics of malaria resistance in children, from the University of London in 1999. He has published extensively on the burden and clinical consequences of red cell genetic disorders and their relationship with malaria protection, questions which he studies using both laboratory-based and epidemiological approaches.

Dr. Etienne de Villers

Etienne de Villiers is a Principal Investigator in Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford and has been employed since 2012 to establish a Bioinformatics and Genomics platform at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. He graduated from Stellenbosch University in South Africa with a M.Sc. in Biochemistry, and was appointed Researcher and later, Senior Researcher at the Agricultural Research Council – Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South Africa in 1992. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Utrecht University, The Netherlands in 2001. He is a molecular biologist by training that developed an interest in computing and ventured into the area of bioinformatics and has an interest in the application of bioinformatics to develop vaccines and diagnostics for orphan diseases of both livestock and now humans. At Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute he was part of the team that sequenced the first bacterial genome in Africa (Ehrlichia ruminantium) and in 2002 he accepted a Postdoctoral Scientist position at the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya to establish a bioinformatics unit to support the Theileria parva genome-sequencing project in collaboration with The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR) to develop a vaccine against East Coast Fever. In 2003 he was appointed as scientist and Bioinformatics Group Leader at the ILRI-BecA platform. He is actively involved in capacity building in bioinformatics in East and central Africa and has introduced several hundred students to the subject. He currently has an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor at Pwani University, Department of Public Health and is executive board member of EMBnet, The Global Bioinformatics Network.

Prof. Eduard Sanders

Email : ESanders@kemri-wellcome.org

Eduard Sanders is an Associate Professor of Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford, and is based in Kilifi, Kenya. He is the principal investigator of several observational studies involving mostly men who have sex with men (MSM) and female sex workers (FSW) in Kilifi, and co-recipient of the SANTHE grant. His interest in diagnosing acute HIV infections was inspired by the many MSM who sought health care prior to seroconversion in coastal Kenya, and the opportunity this presents for reducing onward HIV-1 transmission. He currently leads ongoing studies on the utility of clinical algorithms to identify and diagnose young adults with acute HIV infection at various health facilities in Kenya, enabling early treatment, counselling interventions, and assisted partner notification.