Four Long Term Trainees at UMD

Aliyu G. Gumel (Nigeria) completed his Master of Science in Epidemiology and began his PhD program in Fall 2008 at the University of Maryland Baltimore.  His research interests are in HIV Awareness, linkage of testing to care, and vaccine trials. He will be returning to Nigeria the Summer 2009 to collect data for his dissertation. (UMD Mentor:  Dr. Manhattan Charurat and William Blattner).

Chuka Anude, (Nigeria) is completing his PhD in Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and dissertation work with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  Chuka has begun his dissertation work in Nigeria in the area of developing a prediction model to help guide and improve quality related clinical programs to reduce mortality/loss to follow-up and immuno-virologic failure among adults on HAART in PEPFAR funded public ART program in Nigeria. (UMD Mentors:  Drs. William Blattner and Mary Ann Etiebet)

Adetoya Omoni (Nigeria) is completing his PhD in Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and dissertation with the University of Maryland.  She is currently in Nigeria researching the infant feeding modality that is most beneficial for HIV+ children receiving treatment in terms of growth, nutritional status and treatment outcomes. And, identify growth pattern of HIV+ children receiving treatment including the impact of ARV therapy on growth and nutritional status of HIV+ children. (UMD Mentors:  Drs. Manhattan Charurat and John Farley)

Aneisha Collins (Jamaica) is a postdoctoral fellow from the University of West Indes scheduled to arrive in Baltimore  January 2009 to work in Jean Carr’s laboratory gaining the research and laboratory skills needed for Genetic Sequencing.  Her mentor, Dr. Roye at UWI was here earlier this year gaining the laboratory skills required to mentor the genetic characterization of HIV viruses in the Caribbean (UWI mentor: Dr. M. Roye)

Re-entry of Long Term Trainee to Nigeria

Levi Uzono (Nigeria) has completed his MPH at the University of Maryland and is successfully re-entering into Nigeria.  Currently, he is working with the Ministry of Health in Nigeria.  Levi is drafting a to provide preliminary data for the GRIP application later in the year.  The concept sheet is on looking at the cascade loss in ART program specifically in the linkage between testing and care/treatment

Six Short Term Trainings for Nigerians at the University of Maryland (6-8 weeks in duration)  Mentor the Mentor

Alfred Nwofor   is working toward completing his PhD dissertation.  Alfred will be attending a HAIN and Capillus (new diagnostic tool for TB diagnosis) short term training at the CDC in Atlanta in April 2009.  This will allow him to gain the necessary laboratory research skills and proficiency to complete his dissertation on the effectiveness of these TB diagnostic techniques compared to TB Culture. (Lead UMD Mentor: Dr. Alash’le Abimiku)

Andrew Zamani (Nigeria) Mentoring the Mentor Behavior Theory (AD)–a mentor from University of Abuja Teaching hospital will complete a short term Behavioral Theory training under the direction of Drs. Margaret Chesney and Vicki Tepper at the University of Maryland. The design of this short term training is to build research capacity at a University in the area of  discordant couples, adherence, community mobilization and task shifting. (Lead UMD mentor:  Dr. William Blattner)

Sophia Osawe and Ndidi Agala (Nigeria)Research Laboratory Training - will be trained and certified lymphocyte and sample processing for engagement of the Nigeria Clinical Trials Unit in South Africa at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases from June 1, -19, 2009.  They will receive training on PBMC isolation, storage, thawing, and vaibiltiy check and basic flow cytrometry characterization of T cells by Professor Clive Gray, Chief Specialist Scientist, NICD.   This trainee will then serve as a trainer for additional laboratory staff at partnering universities (Lead UMD Mentor:  Drs. Alash’le Abimiku)

Petronilla Nwabike (Nigeria) Research Laboratory Training - a short term training will occur to train a research laboratory technician to become a Train the Trainer  to develop the research technical laboratory skills needed in Nigeria to collect samples, manage repositories, and store and ship samples properly at the collaborating universities. Training is in Mali  (Lead UMD Mentors:  Drs. Alash’le Abimiku )

Dr. Ibraham Illya, PhD, Fogarty Trainee and Mentor is compleign his Mentor the Mentor program under the direction of Dr. Michael Shapiro at the University of Maryland to characterize the antiviral and pharmacological effects of natural products on HIV, TB and Cancer. This short term training will enhance his ability to Mentor his South to South students. (Lead UMD Mentors:  Drs. Alash’le Abimiku and Michael Shapiro)

Three Caribbean  Short Term Training at the University of Maryland IHV (Mentor the Mentor Trainings)

• Dr. Perceval Bahado-Singh (University of the West Indies (UWI), Jamaica):  - Anti-cancer drug testing using the Rat Model (6 weeks) with Dr. Joe Bryant. 

• Dr. Lowell Dilworth (UWI, Jamaica) – Genetic characterization of HIV Virus in Caribbean (4-6 weeks) with Dr. Jean Carr

• Dr. Marcia Roye (UWI, Jamaica) – Genetic characterization of HIV Virus in Caribbean (4-6 weeks) with Dr. Jean Carr

Four Short Term Trainings in Nigeria

As part of an articulated research network of 6 university teaching hospitals engaged in implementation and clinical research, selected staff who will be responsible for data collection, management and analysis of cohort data including an initiative to upgrade cancer registration to promote HIV-malignancy research.  A south to south training will engage the Fogarty supported West African Bioethics Center to upgrade training in research ethics and to improve the quality of research ethics review by supporting IRB quality improvement.

• Introduction to Data Management— May 11-22, 2009 This 2 week course will be given to 20 participants at a time and two courses will be held.  The course will focus on teaching principles for developing a relational database using Microsoft Access.  There will also be a series of interactive modules in data definition, data forms, data entry and data quality monitoring  Lead UMD Mentor:  Dr. Manhattan Charurat

• Statistical Methods in Epidemiolgy   May25-June 5, 2009- This 2 week course will be given to 20 participants at a time and two courses will be held.  Trainees are physicians and pathologists from the 9 sites that make up the Nigerian HIV-malignancy consortium and the PEPFAR cohort sites..  The course is intended to provide basic training in the principles of biostatistics and their application to studies aimed at quantifying which malignancies occur in excess among HIV infected patients.  Examples of published case series and population registry-based studies from Africa, the US and Europe will be discussed and analyzed.  The course will include practical workshops on study design and strategies for data analysis applying Stata.  The course will be used to help identify investigator/mentors with research potential for sandwich training via London School course.  Those with highest scores and aptitude will be selected for the online course for mentors via London School  Lead UMD Mentor:  Dr. Manhattan Charurat

• Research Ethics –  2nd - 3rd April, 2009  This will be taught by staff of the West African Bioethics Center at the 6 academic partner sites.  The goal is to raise awareness of research ethics for staff engaged in research. In this course, students will be taught the modern principles of international research ethics for the biomedical researchers with particular emphasis on ethical issues in HIV/AIDS and oncology research.  The course is closely articulated with the Good Clinical Practice course to lay the ethical foundations for clinical research in Nigeria.  As a follow on the WAB will work with the local IRB to obtain national ethics certification and FWA registration  Lead UMD Mentor: Dr. Clement Adebamowo

• Cancer Registration – 7-10 April 2009 at 3rd floor Training room IHVN.  This 1 week course is based on the Cancer Registration Course curriculum of IARC which has been run for several years by IARC at Lyon, France and in different parts of the world. Students will learn how to set up cancer registries, methods of obtaining high quality information, conduct quality control and uses of cancer registry data. Lead UMD mentor:  Dr. Clement Adebamowo

South to South Trainings in Nigeria

Musa Ismail Abdulahi, PHD Trainee  is completing his dissertation under the mentorship of Dr. Ibrahim Iliya, Department of Medicinal Plant and Traditional Medicine

National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and Dr. Muhammed Gwarzo, past Fogarty Trainee and currently conducting research at Bayero University, Kano. ( Nigerian Mentor;  Dr. I Illya)