Prof. Damalie Nakanjako

Damalie Nakanjako (MBChB, MMED, PhD) is a professor of Medicine, current Principal for Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She is the immediate past Dean of the
School of Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda. She formerly served as Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine. She has over 22 years’
experience in Infectious Diseases care, research and training at different platforms including community trials with simple interventions such as safe water and cotrimoxazole prophylaxis
to reduce morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV (PLHIV), hospital-based studies to evaluate the implementation of basic tools like provider-initiated HIV testing and
routine TB screening to improve access to HIV diagnosis, management of TB-HIV co-infections and timely initiation of anti-retroviral therapy in a hospital setting, epidemiological
studies to understand immune recovery in long-term HIV treatment cohorts, laboratory-based studies to understand cellular mechanisms of suboptimal immune recovery, as well as
clinical trials on innovative interventions of adjuvant therapy to maximize the benefits of antiretroviral therapy among PLHIV. She is currently involved in translational research in
infection and immunity at Makerere University’s infectious Diseases Institute, to build local capacity to utilize basic science research to improve patient care. She is a recipient of the
Fourth Annual Merle Sande health leadership award (2013) in recognition of her efforts as an emerging African healthcare leader who has contributed significant improvements to the
health of her home communities.

Research and collaborations: She leads the translational immunology research group under the Makerere University UVRI Infection and Immunity (MUII) program (co-director) for
capacity building in infection and immunity in Africa  https://www.muii.org.ug/  and scientific director of the translational laboratory at Makerere University’s Infectious Diseases Institute.
She has been a working group member and country coordinator of the Afya Bora consortiumfor global health leadership training in Africa. The is a consortium of 4 Academic institutions
in USA (University of Washington, Seattle, University of San Francisco, Johns Hopkins University and university of Pennsylvania) and 5 academic Institutions in Africa (Makerere
University, University of Nairobi, University of Botswana, University of university of Buea, Cameroon and and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences,Tanzania  http://www.afyaboraconsortium.org/workingGroup.html . She is a member of various steering committees including the GloCal fellowship at University of San Francisco.
She is a Principal investigator (PI) and leader of Alliance of Research Universities in Africa (ARUA) East Africa hub to build capacity for vaccine research as well as PI for the GIZ,
Research Networks for Health Innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa (RHISSA) supporting the African One Health Network for Disease Prevention (ADAPT). Prof Nakanjako is also a
member of the steering committee of the Research Enterprise to Advance a Cure for HIV (REACH) Collaboratory at Well Cornell Medicine for HIV cure research and Training
Advisory Committee on Uganda Cancer Institute-Fred Hutch D43 program where she mentors doctoral students at MakCHS.

Her research group focuses on chronic inflammation and its complications among HIV-infected adults on life-long antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. She is a trainer,
supervisor and mentor of other upcoming scientists, to build the next generation of scientists that will combat current and future challenges to global health in Africa and worldwide. She
received a Grand Challenges Canada rising star award (2012) to study the role of anti-immune activation agents to optimise immune recovery during antiretroviral therapy. She is a recipient of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)- Abdool Karim 2022 Award in Biological Sciences that was designed to honor women scientists in Low Income African Countries for
their achievements in Biological Sciences.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE: Professor Nakanjako trained in leadership and management in health at University of Washington, Seattle, USA (2015). I have over six years of leadership experience as deputy Dean, subsequently Dean of the School of Medicine (SOM) and currently Principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, that have
enriched my leadership and management skills. She has led several collaborative research and training programs over the last 13 years, collaborating with academic and research
institutions in Uganda, and overseas. As vice chair of the Uganda Cancer institute Research and Ethics committee for four years she led various initiatives to regulate research and
protection of human subjects in cancer research.

STUDENT SUPERVISION AND MENTORSHIP: I have supervised over 55 graduate scientists at masters, doctoral and post-doctoral levels, as well as faculty in various collaborative training programs including the Afya Bora Consortium for global health leadership training, the Makerere University -Uganda Virus Research Institute Infection and Immunity (MUII) capacity building program, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)  Fogarty International Center  (FIC) GloCal health fellowship, and the Nurture research training and mentoring program for career development of faculty at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, among others. Many of her students and mentees have taken on leading roles in research, academia, patient care and health care leadership. She has a passion to build the next generation of scientists that will combat current and future challenges to global health in Africa and worldwide. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Damalie-Nakanjako/publications