CCOAT staff also contribute to UCT Clinical Pharmacology degree programs, including undergraduate medical and physiotherapy degrees, BMedSc (Hons), MPhil, MSc (Med), PhD (Med), and MMed (Clin Pharm).
Hosting of Research Fellows at MARC-SE-Africa
Continuing a long MARC-SE tradition of hosting World Health Organization (WHO) Tropical Diseases Research (TDR) fellows, a third cohort of fellows started in January and February this year. MARC-SE is one of WHO’s training partner organizations for the WHO-TDR clinical research leadership programme, whose aim is to develop internationally recognized research leaders in low- and middle-income countries.
Previous fellows:
Dr. Eulambius Mlugu from Tanzania completed his fellowship with MARC-SE in December 2024 and is now applying his research skills to further malaria work in Tanzania’s Ministry of Health.
Current cohort:
Dr. Jonathan Gwasupika from the Tropical Diseases Research Centre in Zambia and Joanitah Atuhaire from the National Drug Authority in Uganda hit the ground running, immediately diving into the deep end of preparing assigned country profiles for the dashboard. Take a look at it here: https://www.marcse-africa.org/malaria-resistance-profiles
Required learning:
To ease the deep dive into all things malaria, fellows have been required to take crash courses in molecular genetics, malaria surveillance, EndNote, Literature search strategies, academic writing and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics in the pharmacometrics department! This is necessary for conceptualization and execution of their proposed research studies.
L-R: Marilyn Solomons, Dr. Jonathan Gwasupika, Dr. Stephanie van Wyk, Joanitah Atuhaire and Prof. Karen Barnes at a recent MARC-SE team event.
WHO expectations:
“By providing Clinical Research Leadership fellows with comprehensive training and leadership development, we aim for them to lead transformative research efforts that address critical health challenges,” says Dr John Reeder, TDR Director. “We are excited to see the positive impact these future leaders will have on global health and their home institutions."
Future plans
The fellows are preparing concepts and abstracts in preparation for the World Malaria Day in addition to their fellowship objectives.
Future Professors Programme
The Future Professors Programme serves the best and brightest of a transformed next generation South African professoriate, supported by the Department of Higher Education and Training and serves all 26 South African public universities. The programme is designed to complement and supplement next generation initiatives at respective universities and to collaborate with such initiatives. We prepare early to mid-career academics across the disciplines for the professoriate. This is a direct response to current inequality in representation in the senior ranks of the academy (associate and full professor levels). This is done through strong cross-disciplinary and inter-university peer networks inside and outside the fellowship programme.
Prof Barnes, a Future Professor’s Programme (FPP) Mentor at the FPP Writing Retreat in KwaZulu Natal (17-20 July 2024)