Celebrating our emerging global leaders in health sciences
Three UCT Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) researchers have been awarded the prestigious United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty Emerging Global Leader Award. The purpose of this award is to advance the career of a junior research scientist in a low- or middle-income country (LMIC) through the provision of research support and protected time.
This intensive, mentored research career development experience is expected to lead to an independently funded research career.
“This grant is such an important one for LMIC investigators because it provides both the funding and mentorship to lift their careers to the next level,” said Dr Rob Huddy, proposal development project manager. Dr Huddy is part of the FHS Research Development team who host proposal development seminars to support researchers through their grant writing process.
“The success of the three UCT researchers in being awarded this prestigious career development grant is testament to their excellent research, as they were competing against researchers from LMICs for this funding,” said Huddy.
The researchers are:
Anna-Ursula Happel: improving health outcomes in babies who are HIV-exposed
Dr Anna-Ursula Happel from the Division of Immunology at the Department of Pathology and Associate Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine (IDM) was awarded the NIH K43 grant to investigate the impact of a probiotic supplement, Bifidobacterium infantis, on the neurodevelopment of babies who are exposed to HIV (in utero and during breastfeeding) but remain uninfected.
Hlengiwe Madlala: early identification of future obesity risk for pregnant women living with HIV
Dr Hlengiwe Madlala of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health was awarded the NIH K43 grant to support her work towards finding early markers of excess weight gain during pregnancy and after delivery among women living with HIV (WLHIV).
Stephan Rabie: addressing suicide risk in people living with HIV
Dr Stephan Rabie, of the HIV Mental Health Research Unit in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, was awarded the NIH K43 grant to investigate primary healthcare-level suicide treatment practices, gaps, and needs among people living with HIV (PWH) in South Africa and, informed by these findings, to develop a brief behavioural intervention to address suicide and HIV care engagement.