Trainees

Winters Mutamba

Winters Muttamba is a public health scientist, and formally trained in Medicine and Surgery at Makerere University, with additional training in public health, Project Planning and Management. He has additional training in human genomics and genetics from National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), USA. He is pursuing a PhD in Medicine at University of St Andrews, UK. His main research interests are in infectious diseases including HIV, TB and COVID-19. Winters PhD research centres understanding pathways by which health systems in low- and middle-income countries can maximise uptake and utilization of diagnostic technologies. He aims to identify critical factors and best model (s) to maximise uptake and utilisation of health technologies in normal and public health emergency periods. He is using Uganda & Kenya as LMIC cases in comparison to UK as a high-income country case.

Ritah Nakiboneka

Ritah Nakiboneka is a biomedical scientist with a MSc in Biomedical laboratory science and management from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda. She is currently on a joint PhD in Medicine programme between the University of St Andrews, UK, and the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Blantyre Malawi. Her PhD aims to clinically evaluate host gene markers expressed specifically in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection for TB diagnosis and for treatment response monitoring in a Malawian cohort. Ritah has 14 years research experience in HIV/AIDs clinical research attained while working with the Medical Research Council/ Uganda Virus Research Institute and London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM) Uganda Research unit as a senior laboratory technologist. Her aspiration is to conduct research to understand both host and pathogen interactions in infectious disease, and consequently inform on new ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent further spread of infectious diseases

Emmanuel Musisi

Before he joined the University of St Andrews in 2019 to pursue his PhD, Emmanuel was a Principal Laboratory Technologist at Makerere University, College of Natural Sciences. He holds an MSc. in Biochemistry from Makerere University. He is an awardee of the PanACEA II Ph.D. studentship, and University of St Andrews St Leonard’s scholarship. His Ph.D focuses on evaluation of the accuracy of tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay (TB-MBLA) for TB diagnosis and treatment response monitoring in sputum and stool. He is assessing the comparative utility of novel TB-MBLA to standard-of-care tests for TB patients with or without HIV using a longitudinal cohort in Uganda. He is also investigating the impact of standard and experimental anti-TB therapy on respiratory microbiota and how this influences treatment outcome. Overall, Emmanuel’s career interest is to attain excellence in basic sciences and translational research and to mentor/teach future researchers to contribute to novel scientific innovations that benefit research, public health, and the academia. Publications.

Bariki Mtafya

Bariki Mtafya is a senior research scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR)-Mbeya, Tanzania, and head of laboratory sciences at the centre. He holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and MSc in Infection and Immunity, University College London (UCL). Bariki was awarded a Commonwealth PhD Scholarship at the University of St Andrews in 2016 to 2020. His PhD thesis assessed the implementability of an innovative method for diagnosis and monitoring of tuberculosis treatment response in routine healthcare settings and performance in relation to chemical processing of TB samples.

Bariki worked for the NIMR-Mbeya for 13 years and supervised various TB diagnostic, drug, and vaccines trials and led the NIMR-Mbeya TB research laboratory to attain the ISO 1589 accreditation. His aspirational goal is attaining excellence in TB diagnostics, treatments, and translational research for public health benefits.