Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU)

Big Data Institute (BDI)

I am a research group leader at the Big Data Institute (BDI) and, Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) within the Nuffield Department of Population Health. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, my interests concern improving the treatment of parasitic worms in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular for schistosomiasis and hookworm.​

An estimated one billion of the world’s poorest individuals live in geographic areas that are endemic with schistosomiasis and/or hookworm. My work focuses on the prevention, treatment, and management of these diseases as well as their progression and interactions with other infections. The objectives are to improve current treatment guidelines, develop targeted approaches to disease prevention and management, and identify new treatment strategies.

Areas of research include evaluating the access to medicines, identifying social determinants of current treatment effectiveness, assessing equity in patient outcomes, understanding the biosocial determinants of transmission and disease progression, and identifying the clinical and social consequences of coinfections. To address the complexity of these research areas, my studies combine methods from statistical/machine learning with field biology. This work requires large-scale primary data collection including observational studies and prospective cohorts with a future outlook towards randomised-controlled trials. In close collaboration with the Uganda Ministry of Health, I lead an ongoing study of more than 20,000 people in rural villages of Eastern Uganda. This study was setup in 2012. 

I completed an MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge, studying both economics and pathology. I then held research fellowships at Cambridge (Isaac Newton Trust, Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research, and Junior Research Fellowship in Medical Sciences at King’s College Cambridge). 

Please feel free to email me about DPhil or postdoctoral opportunities.