First DZIF professorship established in Africa
The University of Tübingen has established a DZIF professorship in Africa for the first time, funded by the DZIF and the Government of Gabon. Dr Ayola Akim Adegnika has been appointed, he is currently Co-Director at the Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL) in Lambaréné.
The DZIF professorship is to be dedicated to immunoepidemiology and clinical infection research in the tropics, and will be located at the Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL) in Gabon. Malaria research and the development of new vaccines and treatment will constitute important focuses.
Dr Ayola Akim Adegnika brings with him many years of clinical research experience. He is specialised in the epidemiology of worm infections associated with allergic diseases and malaria. Further fields of research constitute the immunology and epidemiology of tuberculosis and influenza. He heads several clinical trials on new and existing vaccines and drugs. After completing his medical studies at the Libreville University in Gabon in 2002, Adegnika completed his PhD at the University of Tübingen in 2008.
“The new research professorship strengthens collaborations with both the DZIF and our partners in Gabon,” explains Professor Ingo Autenrieth, Dean of the Medical Faculty in Tübingen and Co-Coordinator at the DZIF. Owing to its director, Professor Peter Kremsner, the Tübingen Institute for Tropical Medicine has had excellent contacts not only to CERMEL but also the hospital in Lambaréné for many years. Kremsner heads both establishments and is Coordinator of the DZIF research field Malaria.
The DZIF collaborates with different “African Partner Institutions” in order to research diseases like malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and others, where they occur. DZIF scientists of the university hospitals and tropical medicine institutes in Tübingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg and Munich jointly conduct research with African colleagues in Ghana, Gabon, Burkina Faso und Tanzania.