Professor Andrew Hattersley
Director
Andrew Hattersley is internationally renowned for his unique work examining the causes and treatment of diabetes. The application of his findings to changes to clinical care has changed thousands of lives especially for people living with mongenic diabetes. In recognition of the quality of his contribution to science he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (2010) and he has been awarded a CBE (2017). He leads a 60 strong multi-discipline research team in Exeter, UK with an emphasis on improving clinical outcomes and seeking to make simple, practical interventions.
Professor Moffat Nyirenda
Co Director
Professor Nyirenda is leading development of capacity building and research studies in Uganda. Professor Nyirenda has international expertise on non-communicable diseases in Africa and extensive expertise in research capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa, including being previous director of the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit and Associate Director of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme.
Dr Angus Jones
Deputy Director and Research Lead
NIHR Clinical Scientist, Exeter. Dr Jones will act as deputy director and research lead supporting development of the research programs. He is a leading early career researcher who was
awarded the European Association of Diabetes Rising Star Award in 2016 and the Diabetes UK Type 2 Diabetes Research Prize in both 2014 & 2015 and leads current studies across 53 centres. He has experience of managing diabetes in SSA as a consultant physician and lecturer in Blantyre, Malawi.
Professor Eugene Sobngwi
Co Director
Professor Sobngwi is a Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon. Professor Sobngwi is leading research prioritisation, development and impact and lead on extension of clinical studies and capacity building to Cameroon. He is a leading academic and clinical expert in sub-Saharan African diabetes, with specific expertise in pathophysiology, epidemiology, and trials and serves on a number of international expert committees including the WHO and the International Diabetes Federation (as Vice President). Professor Sobngwi is also a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
Dr Tim McDonald
Capacity Lead
Laboratory Director and NIHR Clinical Senior Lecturer, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Blood Sciences Laboratory. Dr McDonald will lead development of diagnostics capacity in partner institutions and laboratory test validation, and co-lead the training and education subgroup. He has leading expertise in diabetes and laboratory diagnostics. He was awarded the Department of Health’s Young Healthcare Scientist of the Year award, developed tests used across over 100 NHS Trusts and has established Exeter as a leading research laboratory.
Dr Beverley Shields
Methodological Lead
Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics, Exeter NIHR Clinical Research Facility. Dr Shields will provide methodological expertise and capacity development.
Catherine Angwin
Project Manager
Research Manager, Exeter NIHR Clinical Research Facility. Catherine has worked on clinical trials, research and project management roles, in diabetes, including genetics of diabetes and stratification of Type 2.
Esther Nkiinzi
Project Manager
Esther Nkiinzi is the Research Administrative Officer for the NCD Theme at MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Unit, Entebbe. She holds a Master’s degree in Public health – Health Promotion from Leeds Beckett University, UK (2014) and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from Makerere University, Uganda (2012).
She has been at the Unit since 2014 and previously served as a Field Mobiliser for Health Systems Strengthening and Good Health for Women Projects before going for her Masters.
Samantha Low
Research Coordinator
Following 10 years of working for the funding arm of the NIHR, Samantha joined the diabetes research team, led by Professor Andrew Hattersley in July 2019. Samantha co-ordinates the NIHR Global Health project working to improve diabetes diagnosis and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa in collaboration with partners in Uganda and Cameroon.
Samantha is based in the NIHR Exeter Clinical Research Facility.
Dr Lauren Rodgers
Research Fellow in Medical Statistics
She completed a PhD in Medical Statistics which looked at the effect of missing data in crossover designs in 2008. She then spent three years as a Statistician for the Forensic Science Service working on a novel method for the statistical analysis of forensic DNA profiles. She joined the University of Exeter Medical School as a Statistician in March 2012. During her two years in the PenCLAHRC group she provided statistical support and analysis for a variety of projects focussing on child health research and observational data analysis to evaluate vaccination efficacy. Recent work, as part of the MRC funded MRC APBI STratification and Extreme Response Mechanism IN Diabetes project, has focussed on methods to deal with observational data in the methodology, and application of, observational data to evaluate the efficacy of type 2 diabetes treatments.
Rosamund Greiner
Research Data Coordinator
Rosamund Greiner graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2017 with a BSc in Biological Sciences. She then spent 18 months working at a Community Interest Company in Staffordshire that provided social research and community engagement around patient experiences of health and social care, first as a Research Intern and then as Community Engagement Lead for Walsall. Rosamund left in September 2018 to begin her MSc in Global Health and Development at UCL, where she studied a range of topics covering epidemiology, health systems and financing, quantitative and qualitative research methods and evaluation of interventions. She spent a month at the University of Barcelona as part of this course, where she took courses on undernutrition and food security and maternal and reproductive health. Rosamund’s master’s dissertation was a secondary data analysis investigating the influence of social support on HIV related behaviours among female sex workers in Zambia.
Maddy Geen
Research Administrator
Following her apprenticeship in the Executive Support Office at the University of Exeter College of Medicine and Health, Maddy started her role as a Research Administrator in the RILD Building supporting various Principal Investigator’s and their research teams. She then joined the NIHR Exeter Clinical Research Facility in May 2019 as the Global Health Research Administrator.
Jean Claude Njabou Katte
PhD Student
After completing his MD training Dr Katte worked as a Medical Doctor at the Bafoussam Regional Hospital in several positions including Head of the Diabetes and Hypertension Treatment Centre and as a clinician on Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) Programme for the West region in Cameroon. Furthering his interest in medical research Dr Katte contributed to the Health of Population in Transition (HoPiT) Research Group and was a study coordinator for the Wellcome Trust funded multi-centre H3Africa Diabetes study in Cameroon investigating the environmental and genetic determinants of type 2 diabetes in sub-Sahara Africa populations. Dr Katte is committed to diabetes research in sub-Saharan AFrica after completing an MSc programme in Clinical Epidemiology he has now undertaken a PhD with the Global Health team inverstigating the characteristics of Type 1 diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa in order to inform improvement in Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and treatment.
Priscilla Balungi
Masters by Research Student
Priscilla Agatha Balungi, is Ugandan. She currently holds a BSc in biomedical laboratory technology. She started out as a laboratory technologist in 2003 at Case Medical Hospital, before joining the Clinical Diagnostic lab at MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit where until joining the Global Health team she was the team leader/section head of the Serology/Biochemistry section. Priscilla hopes that her Masters training at Exeter University, will give her the opportunity to gain further knowledge; including rigorous validations of assays currently used in diagnosis of diabetes, as well as in development of new assays, especially those that can be easily undertaken at low level facilities in resource limited settings.
Developing Diabetes Diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa Project.
Anxious Niwaha
PhD Student
After completing his MD training Dr Niwaha investigated the nature of non communicable diseases (NCDs) in HIV patients. especially diabetes mellitus. His long-term goal is to increase early NCD detection, treatment and prevention in resource-limited settings and advance the field of effective diabetes investigation and management in Africa.
Wisdom Nakanga
PhD Student
After completing his MD training Dr Nakanga became a research clinician for MEIRU, coordinating several studies in the field of diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease. He is hoping the Global Health Masters will advance his research expertise and enable him to further studies which will improve the double burden of communicable and non communicable diseases in Africa.
TOGA Project: Understanding OGTT hyperglycaemia in sub-Saharan Africa.