FEND-TB - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Moldova / Study Coordinator
Alexandru Codreanu has worked at Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc" since 2015. He is a microbiologist at National TB Reference Laboratory. Since 2017 he has also worked as the scientifical researcher in the TB Microbiology and Morphology Laboratory. Alexandru is member of Society of Clinical Mycobacteriology of the Republic of Moldova, where his activity is dedicated to the new molecular genetics methods of diagnostic of pulmonary diseases and TB drug resistance. He has worked on different research projects associated with the validation of new diagnostic methods in TB. He is currently the Laboratory Data Manager and Logistic Coordinator of the FEND DR Protocol in Moldova.
Cesar Ugarte-Gil, MD, PhD, earned an MD from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), an MSc in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Global Diseases Epidemiology and Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is working in Tuberculosis since 2005 at Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt at UPCH. Cesar collaborates in different diagnostic trials in TB with FIND (another member of FEND-TB) and other international & local partners. In addition, his research interests are focused on comorbidities in TB (with an emphasis on Diabetes and Mental Health) and TB epidemiology. Currently, he is Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine at UPCH, Hon. Assistant Professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and, since 2017, he is a member of the Expert Board at National TB Program in Peru. He is the local Principal Investigator of FEND-TB in Peru.
Job Titles:
- Co - PI & Scientific Director
- Professor of Medicine
Dr. Alland is a Professor of Medicine and the Chief of Infectious Disease as well as the Director of the Center for Emerging Pathogens and the Rutgers Regional Biocontainment Laboratories at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Alland is internationally recognized for his pioneering work on the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and molecular evolution of M. tuberculosis (Mtb). His epidemiologic studies in the 1990s showed that drug-resistant Mtb was being transmitted in institutions and the community, impacting national TB control efforts. He then led a 10-year research effort that culminated in the development of the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay, the first on-demand, point-of-care TB test, and the first replacement for the acid-fast smear to diagnose TB in over 100 years, recommended by the WHO and now used in 130 countries. This work continues in the development of rapid diagnostics for extended TB drug resistance, and bloodstream detection of bioterrorism agents, S. aureus, Candida species, and more recent work on point-of-care diagnostics for COVID-19. Dr. Alland's group along with the Sassetti laboratory discovered that phase variation in the M. tuberculosis glpK gene produced heritable, but rapidly reversible multi-drug tolerance, and suggested that phase variation may explain why TB requires months of multi-drug treatment. Dr. Alland described the complex interactions of mutations in the Mtb embB, Rv3806c and Rv3792 genes in the evolution of ethambutol resistance. He then translated these observations into innovative drug screens for inhibitors of cell wall biosynthesis and respiration, discovering novel drug candidates targeting Mtb Pks13, KasA and MenG, that are highly effective against stationary phase organisms, which promise to address the unmet need for more rapid effective TB treatment. Dr. Alland became the director of the Public Health Research Institute in February 2020; and then recognizing the gravity of the coming COVID-19 epidemic, Dr. Alland organized the Center for Covid-19 response and pandemic preparedness and became its first Director in March 2020.
Job Titles:
- Physician
- Moldova / Deputy Director of Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc"
Dr. Anna Donica is a MD, physician, pneumologist at the Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc", Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. Her professional career is dedicated to respiratory diseases, especially tuberculosis. She has 15 years of experience in programmatic support, research, policy, and advocacy related to TB control, especially drug-resistant TB. For a long time, she contributed to the structure of tuberculosis services in Moldova; and participated in elaborating on the national protocol for TB treatment. In recent years, Dr. Donica has been the technical consultant on the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Under the National Tuberculosis Program of Moldova, she helped to strengthen quality control and feedback mechanisms between peripheral TB offices and to improve the treatment and monitoring of TB patients.
In the last 10 years, her area of interest has been focused on the management of MDRTB patients, and on the development and evaluation of novel interventions for TB control. She is actively involved in international projects on TB drug resistance, TB epidemiology, and sustainability of TB control. She is the clinical investigator in different clinical trials examining new drugs for TB treatment.
Over the last 6 years, Dr. Donica has been in the position of Deputy Director of the Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc" from Chisinau, Moldova. Dr. Donica is the Clinical Coordinator of the FEND DR in Moldova.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc
- Moldova / Director of Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc"
Dr. Doina Rusu is a MD, Ph.D., pneumologist at the Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc", Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, and Master in Public Health Management and Associate Professor at the Department of Pneumology and Allergology at the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemițanu" in Chisinau. In 2007 she completed a PhD degree in the field of Pneumology for her thesis, "Community-acquired pneumonia: Clinical Course and Management".
Since November 2022, Dr. Doina Rusu has been the Director of the Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc" and has been actively involved in projects aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia, infections in the immunocompromised hosts, fungal infections, tuberculosis and NTM, and screening of tuberculosis in the country. Her research interest is focused on issues related to the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory infections, on which she has published a series of articles and thesis. The field of tuberculosis is one of the directions of research in her professional activity.
Job Titles:
- Researcher at Makerere University School of Medicine
Dr. Grace Kisitu is a clinician, a public health specialist and a researcher at Makerere University School of Medicine. His career interests include conducting and promoting clinical, operational and implementation science research with emphasis on infectious diseases (including HIV/TB), nutrition health in children and adolescents with HIV. He has over 11 years experience in pediatric HIV care and management of which 5 years have been dedicated to research in the same field. He is an investigator on several successful collaborative (multi-institutional, multidisciplinary, intra and inter-country) studies/research projects (including TB/HIV research collaborations). Currently, he is Research Manager/Coordinator for Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation. Dr. Kisitu serves as the Clinical Research Coordinator and Investigator of the pediatric TB diagnostics protocols based at Makerere University. He provides years of experience in research and clinical care of children that will enhance pediatric diagnostic evaluation.
Job Titles:
- Senior Clinical Microbiologist Consultant
Dr. Kathleen Eisenach (Senior Clinical Microbiologist Consultant) was a Professor of Pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) until 2017. She has over 30 years in tuberculosis research in the area of clinical microbiology and provided expertise to CDC, NIH, TB Alliance, and National TB Programs. She has served as Co-Director of the TBRU at Case Western Reserve University, and the Global Consortium for Drug Resistant TB Diagnostics. She brings an understanding of the procedures and processes required for the translation of new technologies to the field and the harmonization of laboratory methods across multicenter studies. In her role as Senior Clinical Microbiologist, Dr. Eisenach takes a leadership role in FEND-TB with the development of laboratory procedures, quality control/quality assurance of methods and conduct in the clinical laboratories. She visits the sites to help establish standard best practices and uniformity across the five clinical sites.
Dr. Lydia Nakiyingi is a clinical researcher and a senior lecturer at the Department of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health sciences. She is also an infectious diseases physician and attends the infectious diseases and the tuberculosis wards of Mulago National Referral Hospital, the teaching hospital for Makerere University. Lydia has been directly involved in the implementation of HIV/tuberculosis research for the last 10 years at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) of the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University. She has the ability, motivation and expertise necessary to perform successful clinical research, and have developed the skills required to lead and guide others in research in a resource-limited setting. Dr. Lydia Nakiyingi currently directly oversees the implementation of TB diagnostics studies at the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University as the local site principal investigator for several collaborative research projects and supervise study team members to carry out Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliant high-quality research. The several research-training opportunities I obtained through the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH International Clinical Sciences Support Center, Family Health International (FHI360) and the continued mentorship from the senior researchers both at Makerere University and collaborating institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Boston University have enriched my knowledge and skill in research. She has produced several peer-reviewed publications from the research projects she's participated in. Additionally, Lydia trains medical students at the Department of Medicine, Makerere University to attain degrees in medicine. She has mentored medical students and supervised postgraduate and PhD research dissertations.
For FEND, Dr. Lydia Nakiyingi oversees all aspects of the study at the Makerere University site including day-to-day running of the study, regulatory submissions, patient enrolment, sample collection, sample handling and shipment, data management, analysis and take part in manuscript writing.
Dr. Nguyen Van Hung has been working as a bacteriologist in the field of TB and pulmonology infection diseases for the last 33 years. Currently, He has been appointed as Head of Department of Microbiology and National TB Reference Lab, Vietnam National TB Control Program. D He has conducted molecular epidemiologic, drug resistant, and human susceptibility and diagnostic studies for tuberculosis (TB) in Hanoi and nationwide. He has authored or co-authored over 30 papers from data obtained through our population-based and clinical based studies. He is interested molecular diagnostics, and conventional bacterial TB diagnostics. His lab is also focusing on training TB diagnostic techniques for technicians of the TB LAB network and ensuring the quality of these labs. He is keen on bringing my lab to become one of the leading TB laboratories in the South East Asia in efforts to combatting TB in the regions following our 5 years Lab strategic plan.
Job Titles:
- Scientist and Honorary Consultant
Dr. Rinn Song is a Clinician-Scientist and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Paediatrics, Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford. Dr. Song completed his medical studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, with an MD and a Doctorate Degree in Medicine (MD Res) with a focus on Health Services Research. He completed his clinical training in Paediatrics at New York University in New York, USA, followed by training in Applied Epidemiology and Public Health as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the TB Division of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up until joining the University of Oxford, he has been an affiliated Scientist with the TB Division of the CDC. He completed his training in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and then joined the faculty of the Department of Paediatrics of Harvard Medical School in 2012. He has been a Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children's Hospital since 2012 and is board certified in Paediatrics and Paediatric Infectious Diseases by the American Board of Pediatrics. He holds an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and an MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Song's primary research interest is paediatric TB, with a specific interest in paediatric TB diagnostics. He has been the PI of a 5 year NIH grant to investigate novel diagnostics as part of a study in Kenya, completed in collaboration with the CDC and KEMRI, and has also been recently working with FIND, Switzerland, on the development and evaluation of novel TB diagnostics. For the FEND-TB program, he leads the pediatric diagnostics group.
Else Bijker started as a postdoctoral researcher on the pediatric FEND study in September 2020. She is a Clinical Lecturer and honorary specialty registrar in pediatric infectious diseases at Oxford University and the Children's Hospital, Oxford. She studied medicine at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, where she graduated in 2009. She completed her PhD cum laude in 2015 at the department of Medical Microbiology of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands (thesis: "Constructing protection and immune responses against malaria. Studies on whole sporozoite immunization approaches"). Else was trained in pediatrics in the Netherlands: at the Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, the Amalia Children's Hospital at Radboud University Medical Center, and the Emma Children's Hospital at Amsterdam University Medical Center. She worked for 5 months as a pediatric registrar in the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, during her training.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of the Data and Operations Management Center
Emily Douglass is the Associate Director of the Data and Operations Management Center (DOMC) in the Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School. She is a public health specialist and researcher specializing in clinical epidemiology and the design, implementation and management of global health and translational research programs. She received her MPH from Boston University and has 15 years of implementation experience in Eastern and Southern Africa, South America and Asia. Ms. Douglass' professional focus is on building collaborative research and sustainable training programs in low-resource areas to improve healthcare, testing, diagnostics and research capacity in areas burdened by particularly high TB and HIV prevalence. She has more than a decade of expertise in coordinating clinical research, training, and public health programs at the local, national and international level in Infectious Diseases, Population Medicine and Emergency Medicine. She has an acute interest in community based research programs and improving TB diagnostics especially in pediatric populations. In addition to working with the FEND Administrative and leadership teams, she directs the Pediatric projects in Uganda and Peru along with the Oxford Pediatric team. Ms. Douglass is also co-founder of a non-profit Community-based Health Research Advocacy organization as well as an Adaptive and Inclusive Climbing initiative, both based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Francesca Basile is a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oxford working on TB diagnostics in Uganda and Peru. She was trained in pediatrics with a concentration in tropical medicine and global child health in Italy, where she also completed a fellowship in clinical HIV. During her specialist training, she spent ten months working in northern Uganda at St. Mary's Lacor Hospital, one of the largest non-for-profit hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.
Francesca has a background in epidemiology and public health and holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians. She is completing an MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to pursuing her interest in pediatric TB research, Francesca worked for the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) in Kampala, Uganda, where she served as a consultant for the BIPAI Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic and Mulago Hospital, and lead several educational and capacity enhancing projects.
Pham Thi Thu Trang graduated as a general doctor in 2008. She is a lecturer who is working for Hai Phong University of Pharmacy and Medicine, Hai Phong, Viet Nam. She graduated Master's program at Viet Nam Military Medical University in 2010 and received a scholarship from the Japanese Government for a Ph.D. program in 2014. She finished her Ph.D. at Kanazawa University in 2018. She had experience as a Hai Phong site coordinator of the Fuji-LAM project of FIND's studies in 2019. She is now the Hai Phong site coordinator in the FEND-Adults project since 2021.
Hoang Thi Chang has been working as a microbiologist in the field of TB, fungus and viruses in the Microbiology Department and National TB Reference Lab, National Lung Hospital since 2018 when she received a degree in Medical Doctor from Vietnam National University, Hanoi. From 2021, she had roles as a team leader in the Fungi section and Serology section. She had experience in studies such as TB Reference Material, Vaccine for TB, Prophylactic for Household contact with Resistance TB, and Drug clinical trials for Fungi. Recently, she has also taken the position of Coordinator for FEND-TB Adult for the Viet Nam site.
Job Titles:
- Nurse from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Karla G Alí-Francia is a nurse from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. She has been working at Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia for about 10 years. She has collaborated in several projects as a field nurse enrolling participants in tuberculosis and specimen collection storage projects, as a field coordinator in COVID-19 studies and currently serves as a study coordinator in tuberculosis research.
Lorraine Luciano-McKeon is a New Jersey native. She is currently Program Administrator in the Center for Emerging Pathogens, Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School, where she is responsible for the pre-and post-award administration of several of the Center's research projects, including the TB-RiCC and FEND-TB programs. She has worked for Rutgers since 2001, and in addition to research administration, she has experience in international affairs, including exchange visitor and work visas and employment-based immigration. Lorraine earned her B.A. in Economics from Kean University. She enjoys reading, cooking and entertaining, needlecrafts and mountain biking. She lives with her husband and son in central New Jersey.
Job Titles:
- Moldova / Study Coordinator
Nelly Ciobanu is an MD, Microbiologist in the National TB Reference Laboratory and scientific researcher in the Microbiology & Morphology Laboratory, Institute of Phthisiopneumology "Chiril Draganiuc". Currently Nelly is a Ph.D. student in Medical Microbiology at PhD School, State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemițanu" Republic of Moldova. She has been working in the field of Tuberculosis since 2012. The main domains of her activities are scientific research in the field of tuberculosis control, microbiological diagnosis of infectious diseases, drug resistance and drug development, introducing modern rapid laboratory tests, applying good laboratory practices in TB laboratories, and implementation and maintenance of a Quality Management System in TB laboratories. She is involved in different diagnostic trials and scientific projects in TB with international & local partners. Nelly is a member of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and the Society of Clinical Mycobacteriology of the Republic of Moldova. She is the Study Coordinator and Lab Coordinator of the FEND DR Protocol in Moldova.
Pham Thi Thu Trang graduated as a general doctor in 2008. She is a lecturer who is working for Hai Phong University of Pharmacy and Medicine, Hai Phong, Viet Nam. She graduated Master's program at Viet Nam Military Medical University in 2010 and received a scholarship from the Japanese Government for a Ph.D. program in 2014. She finished her Ph.D. at Kanazawa University in 2018. She had experience as a Hai Phong site coordinator of the Fuji-LAM project of FIND's studies in 2019. She is now the Hai Phong site coordinator in the FEND-Adults project since 2021.
Silvia Gabriela Pérez Romero is a Medical Technologist from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.
She is working in tuberculosis since 2016 at Laboratorio Humberto Guerra Allison in Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt at UPCH. Collaborating in different research projects helping in the laboratory coordination.
In 2017 she was Laboratory Coordinator of the Multicenter Study of the Accuracy of the BD MAX MDR-TB Assay for Detection of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex and Mutations Associated with Resistance to Rifampin and Isoniazid.
She is in charge of the laboratory procedures of FEND -TB in Perú.
Job Titles:
- Co - PI & Clinical Director