Meet the Dedicated Team Behind the Project

Trudie Lang is Professor of Global Health Research; Head of The Global Health Network and Senior Research Scientist in Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine. She has over 20 years’ experience in running clinical trials, including trials in the developing world, for the pharmaceutical industry, the World Health Organisation and in academia. Trudie focuses on combating diseases of poverty through the generation of high-quality evidence. She has worked in industry, academia and UN organisations. With her team and partners, she works to drive better health outcomes in vulnerable communities by enabling local leadership and ground-up implementation of high-quality health research studies. Within the University of Oxford, she devised and leads The Global Health Network which is a major international collaborative enterprise that sets out to improve health by improving research.

Paul Kingpriest is a research physician with expertise in mapping access to healthcare and environmental health surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa. He has a wealth of experience coordinating clinical and public health research projects with public health institutes and private research organisations to address health inequity. He is a proficient health data analyst, and he currently serves as a research project coordinator at The Global Health Network, University of Oxford.

Bonny Baker has a background in Paediatric trials, with a sub-specialty interest in nutrition and neuro-disability; and a Masters in Global Health and International Development from University College London. In her role at The Global Health Network, Bonny is the Regional Programme Lead for the operational team based in Oxford; working closely with researchers and study teams, both independently and as part of consortia-led projects to enhance local research capacity. As a Global Health Practitioner, she has led the coordination of research capacity work packages across multiple consortia-based programmes spanning Africa and Latin America.

Sainabou is a Gambian Scientist passionate about Human Genetics, Translational Research and Capacity Building. She has work experience in genomics, which was gained while working at the Medical Research Council the Gambia (MRCG) as a Scientific Officer. This involved roles including but not limited to sequencing, data analysis and conducting trainings. She is the founder & Chairperson of the Human Genetics Awareness Association (HuGAA) currently registered in the Gambia with the main aim of destigmatising and promoting awareness of genetic diseases. She has recently completed her MSc in Genomic Medicine at the University of Oxford.

Bart Mesuere is a professor of Big Data Science at Ghent University in Belgium. Passionate about meta-omics, he has contributed to the community by developing several open-source tools for data analysis. In addition, Bart has a keen interest in creating interactive visualizations and user-friendly public dashboards, making complex data more approachable for all.

Lennart Martens is Senior Full Professor of Systems Biology at Ghent University and Group Leader of the ompOmics group at VIB, both in Ghent, Belgium. In 2003 he created the PRIDE repository for the dissemination of proteomics data at EMBL-EBI in Cambridge, UK. After his Ph.D., he led the newly created PRIDE group at EMBL-EBI, establishing the system as the world’s foremost public proteomics data repository. In 2009, he moved back to Ghent University and VIB, where he focuses on novel machine learning algorithms for omics data analysis, and their application to the large-scale reprocessing of public data.

Assoc. Prof. Tarja Pitkänen has 20 years experience on water microbiology and environmental health, and interest on topics related to One Health. Her Waterborne Pathogens research group focuses on water hygiene, solutions preventing waterborne infections, management of fecal contamination in water resources and wastewater-based epidemiology. She has published more than 100 scientific articles. Assoc. Prof. Pitkänen is involved in several national and international expert duties related to the health-related water microbiology, microbial water safety, waterborne infection risk assessment and waterborne outbreak preparedness. She leads the Finnish environmental (wastewater-based) surveillance program for infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. Rolf Lood, an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at Lund University, Faculty of Medicine, spearheads a dedicated research group specializing in Experimental Infection Medicine. His research endeavors are centered on unraveling the intricate mechanisms underlying the propagation and regulation of antimicrobial resistance, with a particular emphasis on transduction.

Dr. Vito Baraka is a Principal Researcher and Head of Biomedical Research Department who holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences Universiteit of Antwerp, Belgium (July 2018). He obtained Masters of Molecular Biology (MSc.) in Vrije Universiteit of Brussels & Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Belgium (Oct 2010-Sept 2012) and his B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BSc MBB) from the University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Sept 2004-November 2007). Dr. Baraka research background applies molecular and genomics epidemiological approaches to solve practical problems in infectious diseases control. He has a strong interest in infectious diseases, malaria in particular, focusing on chemoprevention strategies, disease epidemiology and drug resistance surveillance (AMR). His current projects include the development malaria chemoprevention strategies including Intermittent Presumptive Treatment in different vulnerable populations (IPTp, SMC, IPTsc etc.), impact of climate change on vector borne infections, new COVID-19 diagnostics strategies, clinical trials on uncomplicated and severe malaria, AMR metagenomics, tracking and mapping regional spread of antimalarial drug resistance (artemisinin and partners drugs) using molecular/genomics tools to inform local and regional practices and policies on infectious disease prevention, treatment and elimination efforts.

Dr. Adriana Krolicka is a Senior Researcher at Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE). Over the last 18 years, Adriana's scientific work has focused on biodiversity, environmental DNA, detection of human and animal pathogens in aquatic environments, and the application of monitoring tools. Dr. Krolicka has participated in projects leading to semi-automation or automation of environmental DNA in order to track molecular signatures of anthropogenic pollution.

Doctor Ananda Tiwari, Ph.D., is a water microbiologist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. His research spans public health microbiology, microbial water quality, fecal contamination, wastewater surveillance, natural and engineered water systems, antimicrobial resistance, and OneHealth. As an Environmental engineer, he is interested in wastewater, and drinking water treatment, assessing health risks, pathogen transmission through environmental systems, diarrheal diseases, sanitation and hygiene in developing countries, molecular detection, next-gen sequencing, and characterizing active microbial communities in water. Dr. Tiwari collaborates on waterborne outbreak preparedness and microbial water safety research. He actively participates in international water microbiology research projects.

Taru Miller, MSc and PhD student, is currently working at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) as an expert in infectious disease control and preparedness. Her primary responsibilities include pathogen surveillance and outbreak investigation, with a specific focus on water- and foodborne pathogens. Previously, she worked as a researcher and research coordinator, focusing on intestinal pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in sub-Saharan Africa. Her PhD research focuses on the environmental surveillance of diarrheal pathogens and its implications for waterborne outbreak prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, she has been involved in multiple international projects and has a strong background in development cooperation sector.

The University of Helsinki awarded Haider Al-Hello a PhD in biochemistry in 2012. Since 2003, he has been employed by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), first as a researcher and subsequently as a senior researcher. He earned an MSc in Biomedical Immunology from the University of East London that same year. He has more than 20 years’ experience in surveillance on communicable diseases and outbreak investigations of intestinal virus infections in Finland. His special competence is in the molecular epidemiology of poliovirus, rotavirus, norovirus, and other enterovirus infections, as well as arboviruses in the Middle East. During his career, he has led several virus surveillance projects in Finland. Additionally, he has had impressive work experience in multi-national expert teams. He took part in joint external evaluations to Tajikistan and Montenegro in 2019 as a delegate (technical area lead). Since 2014, he has represented THL in the WHO (RRL and poliovirus containment meetings), EuroRotaNet, and NoroNet due to his strong networking abilities.

Kati Räisänen graduated M.Sc. from Health Biosciences (2009) and PhD from Medical Microbiology and Immunology (2023). Kati is a senior expert in antimicrobial resistance surveillance and molecular microbiology of different bacteria, especially carbapenemase-producing organisms. She is conducting antimicrobial resistance surveillance nationally, Finres-report yearly, and international reporting to ECDC: EARS-Net and WHO: GLASS. Since 2017 she has been secretary of National expert group of AMR/HAI (MTKA). Currently she works as a senior specialist in the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Expert Microbiology unit.

Senior researcher working in the Digital Systems group in the Technology division in NORCE (norceresearch.no). Have worked with research and software development within visualization and virtual reality, interactive visual analysis, and big data. In recent years, focus has been on data portal development for geolocated data for geohazards analysis. In that context, I have also been involved in efforts on improving the FAIR-ness of data and services.

Bérenger KABORE, Medical Doctor by background hold a master's degree in public health/disease control from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium) and a doctorate in public health from the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). He is currently a junior researcher at the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé and deputy lead clinician at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro. In this position, he conducted several clinical trials (phase II-III), observational and interventional studies in the field of malaria, bacterial and viral infections and antimicrobial resistance. His research interest are infectious diseases including the interplay with non-communicable diseases, and AMR.

Dr Paulin K. Somda is a Medical Doctor by background and specialized in planning and management of health programs and services. He is currently the Scientific Director of the National Public Health Institute within the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene. For such, he is in charge of coordinating and monitoring health research, health expertise and the training of health human resources. As Coordinator of the national program to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the Ministry of Health, he drew up the integrated strategic plan to combat NCDs 2016-2020. His knowledge of the health system and the experience acquired in his services at operational and decision-making levels, in particular in the fight against infectious diseases enable him to help Member States of the WHO African Region to reduce morbidity and mortality of these diseases, and to improve the health status of the African population through access to quality primary health care.

Dr Marc C. Tahita graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Ouagadougou and then obtained both his MSc and PhD from the University Nazi Boni (Burkina Faso) and University of Antwerp (Belgium) in 2008 and 2017 respectively. He spent three years working as an assistant microbiology lecturer and after as volunteer pharmacist with Pharmaciens Sans Frontières Comité International. He joined the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro as Scientist and laboratory Director, where he developed a clinical lab capable of carrying out vaccine clinical studies at ICH-GCP standards (RTS'S and R21). He was designated Research Scientist in 2018 and has since managed multicenter studies and instructed numerous students (including pharmacists, doctors of medicine, and master's students). His current research focuses on infectious diseases in general, malaria (diagnosis, prophylaxis, and antimalarial resistance), AMR and One Health.

Bérenger KABORE, Medical Doctor by background hold a master's degree in public health/disease control from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium) and a doctorate in public health from the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). He is currently a junior researcher at the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé and deputy lead clinician at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro. In this position, he conducted several clinical trials (phase II-III), observational and interventional studies in the field of malaria, bacterial and viral infections and antimicrobial resistance. His research interest are infectious diseases including the interplay with non-communicable diseases, and AMR.

Andrea Bagi, PhD is a Senior Researcher at NORCE, Marine Ecology group within the Ocean and Environment department. She has a background in Environmental Engineering and Molecular Microbial Ecology. She works with a variety of topics and projects, with the underlying theme being the use of molecular tools, mainly high-throughput sequencing approaches, such as Oxford Nanopore’s MinION technology. Her topics cover monitoring the impacts of different anthropogenic stressors on natural ecosystems, as well as understanding the roles of microbes in engineered ecosystems. Her earlier research has focused on microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the marine environment and the use of microbes and their nucleic acid signatures as monitoring tools. Later she worked with microbial source tracking in a coastal marine site and wastewater-based epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hello everyone! I'm Maria João, hailing from Portugal. Currently, I'm immersed in my doctoral journey at Lund University, specializing in the Division of Infectious Medicine. The focal point of my PhD revolves around exploring antibiotic resistance mediated by bacteriophages. My academic journey has been a fascinating exploration of environmental microbiology and the intricate relationship between bacteria and their surroundings. During my undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), I delved into the “determination of pigment production in different bacterial strains” and how bacterial pigments from bacteria present in mines are influenced by heavy metals, employing DNA and pigment extractions, chromatography, bacterial culture. Subsequently, in pursuit of my master's degree in Biotechnology at Lund University (Sweden), I furthered my research, earning insights into “How rainfall patterns change microbial induced carbon dynamics in soil”, and the “impacts of drying and rewetting events on soil microbial activity at different depths and different land managements”, studying fungal and bacterial growth measurements through incorporation of 14C and 3H, and using techniques such as gas chromatography and HPLC. My enthusiasm extends to the realm of the Sustainable Development Goals, and my involvement in projects like ODIN provides me with the incredible opportunity to collaborate with a multicultural team that shares this same passion.

Vivi Maketa, is a researcher currently holding the position of Professor at the Department of Tropical Medicine at the University of Kinshasa. Renowned for their contributions to understanding the local context and crafting scientific responses to address pressing health and environmental challenges, she has played a pivotal role in enhancing research initiatives aimed at improving healthcare outcomes. Despite facing formidable obstacles, including the high needs of their country and the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research productivity, she has demonstrated unwavering dedication, resilience, and adaptability throughout their career.

Tam Tran, Ph.D. is currently working at NORCE in the Gene technology, environment and society group. Her background spans from synthetic microbiology to environmental surveillance and antimicrobial resistance research with a solid knowledge in molecular biology. She has been involved in several projects investigating the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes in various environmental/animal settings (wastewater, marine, dairy manure and chicken litter) and the mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer.  Besides her proficiency in wet lab skills, she is keen on learning some basic programming skills with R and Python languages. In this project, she will be working closely with Dr. Krolicka to develop an innovative mobile lab on wheels.

Hillary Sebukoto is a Medical Doctor working as a Research Assistant at the National Institute for Medical Research since the year 2020. He holds a degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College and a Master's in Applied Epidemiology from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. Prior to his current role, he worked as a general medical practitioner at Tanga Regional Referral Hospital (year 2018 – 2020). Alongside his current role, he has been collaborating with the Ministry of Health (Tanzania) in conducting surveillance systems evaluation and outbreak investigation for different disease conditions.

Eric Lyimo is a Research Officer at the National Institute for Medical Research. He has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Molecular Biology from the University of Dar es Salaam. He is currently finalising his PhD at the University of Copenhagen in infectious diseases. He has been involved in planning, managing, and conducting laboratory activities in the fields of immunology and molecular biology. His current research focuses on infectious diseases in general: immunology, diagnosis, AMR, bioinformatics analyses, and One Health. Within the ODIN consortium, Eric helps with data collection, sample collection, and laboratory experiments in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics in collaboration with local partners and ODIN consortium members. In addition to providing instruction and coordinating laboratory activities for Master of Science students specialising in bioinformatics, he supports the generation of workshop synopses and outcomes organised by NIMR.

Logistics, coordination, operation and maintenance of terrestrial and marine scientific equipment. Broad experience with planning and carrying out scientific field work, also under extreme conditions. Has knowledge and experience in experimental design and rigging of scientific experiments. Responsible for the day-to-day operation of the research facilities (including experimental hall for aquatic species experiments). Practical and technical assistance to researchers in projects both in the lab and in the field. Has approval for work with animals in laboratory experiments and is a member of the "animal welfare committee."

Dr. Dylan Shea is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE). Over the last 9 years, Dylan’s scientific work has focused on the application of environmental DNA methods to improve disease surveillance in the marine aquaculture industry and characterize the distribution of fish species in freshwater systems. Dr. Shea has participated in projects that have contributed to our understanding of the dynamics of pathogenic viruses, bacteria, and parasites in salmon aquaculture, while working to develop methods for molecular pathogen surveillance that can be employed on-site by aquaculture managers.