London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Join us to watch the inaugural lecture of Professor Alfred Amambua-Ngwa, who will deliver his lecture at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MRCG at LSHTM). Attendees based in London are invited to watch the livestream from LSHTM, Keppel Street.

In his lecture, Professor Amambua-Ngwa will chart a career dedicated to molecular research on two devastating parasites in Africa: River Blindness, caused by a parasitic worm spread by black flies, and malaria, caused by single-celled parasites spread by mosquitoes.

The talk will begin by covering the early career work on River Blindness, where he sought to understand human immune responses and the genetic diversity of the River Blindness parasite. This foundational work in Cameroon, aimed at the difficult goal of vaccine development, provided the essential skills for subsequent, extensive research on malaria.

During the second and primary part of the talk, he will focus on his leadership of malaria research at the MRC Unit in The Gambia, where his team use genetic approaches to map out different malaria parasite populations. This work has been crucial for understanding how the parasite evolves, spreads, and adapts to immunity and interventions like drugs, as well as interactions with human and diverse vector hosts.

Finally, Professor Amambua-Ngwa will briefly highlight his contributions to advancing African scientific careers and commitment to fostering equitable and sustainable global collaborations.

The lecture will be followed by drinks at the terrace of the MLB building in MRC Gambia.

Speaker

Professor Alfred Amambua-Ngwa

Professor Alfred Amambua-Ngwa earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Buea in Cameroon. He joined the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG at LSHTM) as a Postdoctoral Scientific Officer in 2006 to focus his research on Malaria. Earlier malaria work was on mechanisms of invasion of Plasmodium falciparum in severe and mild malaria. In the last 15 years, his team has been applying in vitro cell assays and analysis of genomic variation to determine the response of the major malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum to changes in its environment including response to drugs. He explores genetic variation in parasite, human and vector populations across Africa to decipher transmission dynamics and mechanisms determining variance in outcome of exposure and infection with Plasmodium species. 

Event notices

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