Dr Esin Nkereuwem, Clinical Research Fellow at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MRCG at LSHTM), has been awarded an EDCTP Career Development Fellowship after a competitive process. This award is a 36-month fellowship aimed at supporting early to mid-career sub-Saharan African researchers by providing them with an opportunity to train and develop their clinical research skills.

Through this fellowship, Dr Nkereuwem is measuring the long-term effects of tuberculosis (TB) on the physical and psychosocial health of children in The Gambia. The EDCTP fellowship builds upon his previous work, which evaluated the lung function and quality of life in Gambian children who had previously been treated for TB and compared them to children who were never diagnosed with TB. The previous work, which was published in the BMJ Thorax in 2022, showed that Gambian children who had previously been treated for TB had significantly reduced lung function and quality of life compared to those who had never had TB.

Dr Nkereuwem commented, "I am excited about this fellowship. I look forward to this interesting chapter in my career, which will build upon my previous research. I am pleased to work on this significant but poorly-studied subject of post-tuberculosis sequelae in children. I hope my research can contribute to understanding the broader factors determining the health and wellbeing of Gambian children after TB treatment."

Dr Nkereuwem’s supervisory team for the EDCTP Career Development Fellowship comprises Dr Toyin Togun and Professor Beate Kampmann.

Dr Toyin Togun, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the LSHTM TB Centre, and a Senior Scientist in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM, emphasised that "this fellowship award is a tremendous opportunity for the research career development of Dr Esin Nkereuwem who is a highly promising young African scientist. It also builds upon the long-term collaboration between the Unit and EDCTP and further demonstrates EDCTP’s strategic commitment to research capacity building regionally in West Africa and Africa at large."

In her statement, Professor Beate Kampmann said, "This prestigious fellowship will allow Dr Nkereuwem to continue his important studies on the long-term consequences of TB in children and to complete his PhD. It is a credit to the candidate and the science proposed, and we are delighted that EDCTP continues to support our career development programme in this manner."

Dr Nkereuwem joined the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM in August 2018 as a Research Clinician and has worked under the supervision and mentorship of Professor Beate Kampmann in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme. The EDCTP fellowship is a major part of his PhD at the Department of Clinical Research, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases in LSHTM.