Professor
Ogobara Doumbo, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Malaria Research
and Training
Center, and Chairman of the
Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases at the University
of Bamako’s Faculty of
Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry. He has been the subcontract
principal investigator for
contract N01-AI-85346 since its award in 1998.
Experience,
qualifications and accomplishments. Pr. Doumbo received his M.D. from
the
University of Mali in 1979,
a second medical degree from the University of Marseille in 1985, and
a Ph.D. in parasitology
from the University of Montpellier in 1992. He was appointed Professor at
the University of Mali in
1992, one of the youngest to hold that rank at the university. He has also
served as Chairman of the
Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases since 1992. Since
the inception of the
Malaria Research and Training Center, Pr. Doumbo has directed its
molecular biology and
immunology laboratories and its clinical and epidemiological research
programs, and he became
Director of the MRTC in 2001. He has been the principal investigator
on several WHO grants, on a
Tropical Medicine Research Center program project grant from
NIAID, and since 1998 has
been the subcontract principal investigator for contract N01-AI-85346,
“Malaria: Clinical Research
and Trial Preparation Site in Mali”. Pr. Doumbo is the senior co investigator
for the phase 1 malaria
vaccine trial now in progress in Bandiagara, and has been a
key member of the core of
partners that moved this trial forward in the face of many obstacles
and challenges. His views
and insights are highly valued throughout the malaria research and
vaccine development
community, and his effectiveness in producing world-class scientific
results in a very difficult
environment is widely recognized.
Under his leadership, the
MRTC has been transformed into a tightly organized research
institute with discrete
units and sections, each headed by a senior investigator. He also created
the Mali Malaria Vaccine
Development Unit (MMVDU) within the MRTC, and has steered the
overall mission of the MRTC
towards the development and testing of malaria vaccines while still
providing a healthy
multidisciplinary environment for other senior investigators to pursue many
aspects of malaria
research, most notably parasite molecular genetics, drug resistance,
geographic information
systems and remote sensing, and molecular entomology.
Pr. Doumbo has been widely
published in both French and English, with 73 publications. He
is highly regarded internationally
as an authority on clinical, epidemiological and immunological
aspects of malaria, and has
played a prominent role in creating and guiding the international
Multilateral Initiative on
Malaria. He brings to this project valuable expertise on malaria, particularly
with regard to its
epidemiology and clinical manifestations, and many years of experience
directing large-scale
malaria field studies in Mali. He also brings intimate knowledge of the
geography, culture and people
of the Bandiagara area.