Kanki Lab
Our research works toward improving our understanding of the pathobiology of important viral diseases in Africa and training students and research scientists. We collaborate with African scientists to address research questions that can translate to evidence-based real-world solutions, improved health outcomes, and sustained policy change.
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
651 Huntington Avenue
FXB Building, Room 405B
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Lab Members
Our research works towards improving our understanding of the pathobiology of important viral diseases in Africa. We collaborate with African scientists to address research questions that can translate to evidence-based real-world solutions, improved health outcomes, and sustained policy change. The training of students and junior faculty is critical to promoting sustained infectious disease research on the continent.
Phyllis Kanki
“My research centers on the virology and molecular epidemiology of HIV in Africa along with implementation science work to improve HIV outcomes. I have worked in West Africa since the 1980s, and in 2000, I created and directed the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) with a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since 2004, I led the Harvard President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) providing prevention, care, and HIV antiretroviral therapy in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tanzania.”
Researchers
Ms. Chang has worked as a data manager and IRB coordinator for Dr. Kanki for over 14 years. As data manager for the Harvard PEPFAR program, she assisted international partners in monitoring, evaluation, and quality improvement. She works with collaborators at international sites to develop research protocols, study tools, and databases, and document regulatory compliance. She monitors, prepares, and analyzes data for program evaluations and research projects on various topics, including HIV, arboviruses, and SARS-CoV-2 in our partner countries.
Beth has provided laboratory, data management and utility development for programs in Nigeria since 2005. For the Harvard PEPFAR program, Beth developed the treatment response utility for identifying patients failing antiretroviral therapy, using the electronic data available at each health center. This software pulls together clinically relevant information from medication dispense histories, laboratory tests and physician notes into a visual display that offers a snapshot of patient progress. Beth is currently involved in research on HIV drug resistance in pediatric patients and immune responses to SARS CoV-2 in Nigerian healthcare workers.
Don has worked as a laboratory specialist at the Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health for over 25 years. He is the Director of
Laboratory Programs in the Kanki Laboratory and oversees the BSL3
Virology laboratory (FXB 4). He provides laboratory expertise to
colleagues in Nigeria for infrastructure development, laboratory
training and laboratory administration for WHO qualification. His
research background has focused on HIV, Zika and Dengue viruses, and is
currently conducting a number of studies on SARS-CoV-2.
Dr. Koofhethile is a postdoctoral Fogarty Fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health after the successful completion of her PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Dr. Koofhethile’s research investigates HIV viral reservoirs and the potential for HIV cure in adolescents on long term antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Botswana. She is also studying the HIV-2 reservoir to identify unique determinants to HIV-2 attenuated pathogenicity and long term latency.
Dr. Rawizza is an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is an infectious disease physician with training in adult and pediatric medicine that has worked with Dr. Kanki since 2007. She has over a decade of experience in translational clinical research in Nigeria, where she is currently completing a K23 award examining the pharamacokinetics of TB and ART medications in coinfected children. A recently funded project will study patterns of HIV drug resistance after treatment failure in children and its implications for second-line dolutegravir use, and will evaluate a novel drug resistance assay. Dr. Rawizza has experience in care and treatment of HIV, COVID, and other infectious diseases.
Dr. Ogunbajo is one of our 2020 Alonzo Smythe Yerby postdoctoral fellows
and was appointed as a research fellow in IID with Dr. Kanki as his
mentor since June 2020. Dr. Ogunbajo’s doctoral research at Brown
University was noteworthy with a number of important studies conducted
in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and the US, which resulted in publications on
psychosocial health outcomes in gay and bisexual men. These are key
vulnerable populations that remain high risk for HIV and face numerous
obstacles in accessing HIV prevention and care services. This is a newly
appreciated concern in low and middle-income settings, making the focus
of his research particularly timely. Recently, Dr. Ogunbajo has
conducted a multisite study in Nigeria to explore barriers to PrEP
access in men who have sex with men.
Graduate Student
Dr. Ammar Al Naimi, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Frankfurt, Germany, is currently completing his Master’s thesis in Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan with the Kanki Lab. His retrospective clinical data analysis aims to address research gaps in gestational weight gain among pregnant women with HIV on dolutegravir, the current WHO-recommended first-line antiretroviral treatment for adults.