London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

In his inaugural lecture, Professor Assan Jaye will take us through his academic research journey, which happened not by choice, but had stemmed from his early desire to be a livestock farmer and veterinarian. He was accidentally attracted to MRCG Unit after returning to the Gambia following his PhD studies, when he demonstrated his ability to build a viral immunology investigation during measles outbreak and later joined the difficult battle to unravel HIV immunity. The 27 years of research made him aware of the need to build African capacity for health research; he decided to ask himself: Who should take it up and what should be done about global health capacity in West Africa, or should we continue to leave it to chance?

Professor Assan Jaye will deliver his lecture at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the LSHTM.

Speaker

Professor Assan Jaye

Professor Assan Jaye obtained a Veterinary Medicine degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria in 1988 and a PhD on Immunogenetics from Brunel University, UK in 1993. His PhD research on trypanosomiasis in cattle was carried out at the then International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) in Kenya.  He pursued his post-doctoral research at the Medical Research Council, The Gambia Unit (MRCG) from 1993 to 1998, working on cellular immunology of measles infection during the period of measles outbreak in the region. He later became the HIV Immunology Group Leader at MRCG when most of his work described the immunological characteristics of non-progressive HIV-2 infection compared differently to more progressive nature of the HIV-1infection.

Dr Jaye became the interim Head of the MRCG Viral Diseases Program in 2008, giving strategic research leadership to the program. He was seconded as Head of West Africa Collaboration from 2010-2015 to the Laboratory of Bacteriology-Virology of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal, when he developed and coordinated a regional collaborative HIV Research and Intervention Network including institutional capacity strengthening program. During this period, he coordinated two major regional research capacity building grants funded by EDCTP and GHRI respectively for the development of varied skills that enabled multi-centre research collaboration and clinical trials in HIV, TB and Malaria.  

Dr Jaye became passionate about mentoring and creating opportunities for aspiring young scientists and in 2016, he ventured into Researcher Leadership Training and returned to the MRCG Unit to head the Research Training and Career Development department. His past experiences as Coordinator and Chair of the MRCG Higher Degrees Program Committee (from 2004-2010) created opportunities for young researchers to pursue post graduate research studies under the MRCG Research Career Development Support.  As Head of Training, he implemented innovative strategic program and management for the delivery and evaluation of researcher leadership trainings that would develop the capacity of MRC researchers and research support staff to impact on the Unit’s scientific output; and to contribute to developing researcher talents in Sub-Saharan Africa that allow multicentre collaboration.  He continues to play his leadership role in the strengthening of health research network for MRCG at LSHTM in the region through the MRCG initiated research collaborating hub, named West Africa Global Health Alliance (WAGHA), which was formed between MRCG and Health Research Institutes in Senegal.

Dr Jaye was appointed Professor of Global Health Education and Researcher Leadership at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in January 2022. He is a member of the MRCG Leadership Board, Chair of Scientific Coordinating Committee, member of the Gambia Government/MRCG Ethics Committee and Advisory liaison for MRCG with the Gambia Government through the Ministries of Health and Higher Education and Research. 

Event notices

• Please note that you can join the watch party or you can join the session remotely.
• Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available.