Dr Ousman Secka, Manager of the Microbiology Labs at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been appointed as Country Ambassador for the American Society of Microbiology (ASM).

The ASM is the oldest and largest single life science society in the world and sets out to promote and advance the microbial sciences. The Society accomplishes this mission through a variety of products, services and activities by proving platform for sharing the latest scientific discoveries through books, journals, meetings and conferences. It also helps to strengthen sustainable health systems around the world through its laboratory capacity building and global engagement programs, advance careers through its professional development programs and certifications and inspire the next generation of scientists through outreach and educational programs.

Country Ambassadors are senior scientists who connect ASM members across the globe, building relationships with key institutions, facilitating partnerships and responding to the needs of the local scientific community. There are currently 94 ASM Country Ambassadors.

Reacting to his appointment, Dr Ousman Secka said “I want to thank my ASM colleagues for nominating me to this prestigious role particularly to Prof. Douglas Berg, an Emeritus member of the society. The knowledge of microbiology is confined only to a selected few involved in clinical diagnostics and through this platform, I want to inspire the next generation of microbiologists to bring the science to the fore front to increase public awareness and impact on informed decisions”.

Dr Secka joined the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM as a young high school graduate in 1983 as a Trainee Lab Technician. After two years at the Unit, he was offered a scholarship to study Biomedical Sciences at the Preston Polytechnic, now Lancashire University. After graduating, he returned to the Unit and worked as a Scientific Officer in various projects including the highly successful Hib Vaccine Study. During the study trial, Ousman enrolled at the Open University MPhil course looking at strains isolated from both Hib vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.

His MPhil study led to the first description of a hyperinvasive Haemophilus influenzae type b genotype in The Gambia, which was presented at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh at the 156th Society for General Microbiology (SGM) meeting in 2005. In 2013, Ousman completed his PhD on Genotypes of H. pylori isolates in Gambian Children and Adults. The study also described the population structure of Helicobacter pylori, its anti-biogram and related gastric pathologies. He was the first to characterise H. pylori of clinical isolates and isolates taken from young children close to the time of their first colonisation from The Gambia. Ousman worked extensively on identifying the characteristics of both invasive and carriage isolates of Haemophilus influenzae type b from The Gambia. He developed and evaluated a rapid and simple biotyping method for Haemophilus influenzae called “MICROTEK” published in Br J Biomed Sci.1998.

Between 2009-2014, Ousman managed both the Research Laboratories and Biobank at the Unit, and successfully led both departments in setting up systems to comply with Good Clinical Laboratory Practices (GCLP). He currently manages the Microbiology Laboratories (TB Diagnostic and Research Microbiology laboratories). In addition, Ousman is the Unit Biological Safety Officer from 2013 to date and the Unit’s Microbiologist offering advice to Principal Investigators for Microbiological processes. He is a certified IATA and offers unit wide training and advice on packaging and transportation of biological samples. Ousman supervises BSc, MSc students and is currently co-supervising a PhD student.