MCDC and College of Medicine, Malawi: My
Story
Wilson Mandala PhD
Associate Director, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust,
Senior Lecturer, College of Medicine
Chancellor College
1991 - 1994
Kamuzu Academy
1985 - 1991
My Academic Journey
Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine 2004 - 2007
King’s College London
1996 - 1997
Soil Chemist
ARET (1998 – 2004)
Tea Biochemist
TRF (1995 – 1998)
My Work Experience
Lecturer & Manager
CoM (2008 – to date)
MLW
1. Research Fellow (2004 – 2007)
2. Associate Director (2014 - 2018
How I benefitted from Gates Malaria Partnership
PhD Programme
•
Registration:
University
Liverpool (2004 – 2007)
Publications from the PhD Study
of
Already Published
1.
•
Study Area: Malaria Immunology
2.
•
Spinoff benefits: Other grants
1.
MCDC Initiative Award: Tregs in
malaria (2010 – 2012)
HRCSI Award: CTX prophylaxis
effect (2011 – 2013)
NIH Grant: Malaria – NTS
association (2015 – 2018)
2.
3.
Supervision:
Four PhD fellows: One graduated,
Two writing up, one just started
Lymphocyte reference ranges –
JACI 2010
Three Country Reference ranges –
JACI 2014
Submitted/ under review
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Malaria phenotype paper – JID
Monocytes in malaria – Parasite
Immunol
Cytokines in Malaria – PLoS One
Lymphocytes in pregnancy –
EJOGRB
Malawian
haematological
reference ranges – PLoS One
How I have benefited from MCDC
Career Progression
Research Development
1.
2.
Offered me Initiative Grant Award (2010-12)
3.
MCDC Country Coordinator
Funded
my
Personal
Development Plan
Facilitated my mentorship
programme
Study Area: Regulatory T cells in Malaria
Status: Completed, data analysed
Publications:
One accepted JPIDs
My Involvement in Wellcome Trust Initiatives
Director CoM
Research
Support Centre
MCDC
Coordinator
CoM Institutional
Grant Recipient
CARTA Focal
Person
MCDC
CARTA
HRCSI
SACORE
Grant
Administrator
1. Establishing PhD programme
2. Training of PhD supervisors
3. Conducted Baseline Needs
Assessment
4. Established a mentorship
programme
5. Provided an online PG
monitoring system
MCDC’s contribution at College of Medicine
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Furnishing of 24 seater PhD Room
Enhancing research work in Malaria
Co-fund IT services at CoM
Support Research Support Centre
Provision of postdoctoral research
awards
MCDC & the PhD Programme at CoM
8
Number of Students per Year
7
#Registered
#Completed
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Acknowledgements
GMP/MCDC
Prof. B. Greenwood
Prof. D. Schellenberg
Dr. A. Bhasin
Dr. H. Mccullough
Supervisors/Mentors
Prof. C. MacLennan
Prof. S. Ward
Prof. R. S. Heyderman
Additional Slides if Needed
Weaknesses of MCDC
1. Limited funds
2. Limited South-South Networking
3. Hhigh Staff turn-over
How MCDC fits in CoM Future Plans
MLW
Malaria
Theme
CoM MCDC Malaria
Research (DELTAS)
BMP
PI
MalawiLiverpoolWellcome Trust
Three Postdoctoral Fellows
Blantyre-MalariaProject
Six PhD Fellows
Eight MSc Fellows
MAC
ICEMR
Malaria Alert Centre
International Centers of Excellence in
Malaria Research