Francine Ntoumi
Born1961
Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
NationalityCongolese
Scientific career
FieldsParasitology
InstitutionsCongolese Foundation for Medical Research

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

GISAID Regional Hub (Central Africa)

Marien Ngouabi University

Multilateral Initiative Against Malaria

Francine Ntoumi Ph.D., HDR, PvDz, FRCPedin (born 1961) is a Congolese parasitologist specializing in malaria. She was the first African person in charge of the secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (2006-2010).[1] In recent years, she has become involved in research on other infectious diseases,[2][3][4] including COVID-19.[5]

Early life and education

Francine Ntoumi was born in 1961 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. Her father was an electrical engineer (one of the first in the Congo) and her mother was a neonatal nurse. She is the eldest of five siblings and the only girl.

Ntoumi received her primary education in Brazzaville. She moved to France for her BEPC degree, which she earned in 1975, and her baccalauréat, which she earned in 1978 from the Lycée Marie Curie de Sceaux. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology in 1989, then her doctorate in 1992 from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie.[2]

Career

After earning her Ph.D., Ntoumi began her molecular immunology and epidemiology research on malaria at the Pasteur Institute of Paris.[2] She took a position in Franceville, Gabon, as a researcher at the International Center for Medical Research in 1995, and remained there until 2000. That year, she became the Head of Laboratory at the Medical Research Unit of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen. She remained in these positions until 2005. Between 2006 and 2007, Ntoumi was the Scientific Director of the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), located in The Hague, Netherlands. She then led the Secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative Against Malaria in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, until 2010, as its first African leader.[2][6][7][8]

Ntoumi has worked to reinforce the African continent's public health research capacity, through efforts coordinating the Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria (CANTAM). She is a member of many scientific committees, including the Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.[6] She leads the GISAID Regional Hub in Central Africa, facilitating international collaboration on SARS-CoV-2 sequencing and other disease research.[9]

Ntoumi is the President of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research (FCRM), which she founded in 2008, which helped to establish the University Marien Ngouabi's first laboratory for molecular biology. Ntoumi is a senior lecturer at University Marien Ngouabi and has also been an associate professor at the University of Tübingen since 2010. Since 2014, she has been a professor and researcher at the Marien Ngouabi University.[2]

Ntoumi is involved in a programme “to make science a female ambition” in Africa, which aims to promote gender balance in science.[10]

Publications

Ntoumi has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and Nature Genetics.

Other activities

Honors and awards

Ntoumi was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to receive the Georg Foster prize, for her work creating networks to combat infectious diseases across Africa. She has also been lauded for her leadership and education of scientists across Sub-Saharan Africa.[6][7][20] Ntoumi has also been awarded a fellowship of the African Academy of Science.

Other awards include:

References

  1. ↑ "Multilateral Initiative on Malaria". www.mimalaria.org. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Francine Ntoumi". Institut de France. Grands Prix des Fondations. 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  3. ↑ "Francine Ntoumi, présidente de la Fondation congolaise pour la recherche médicale : " Peut-on parler de la recherche au féminin ? "". www.adiac-congo.com (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  4. ↑ "Je transmets mon savoir". Deutschland.de (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  5. ↑ Ntoumi, Francine. "Prof Dr Francine Ntoumi from GISAID Initiative on Vimeo". Vimeo. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Scientific Advisory Committee". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  7. 1 2 3 "Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation - 36 - Awards for researchers from transition and developing countries". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Archived from the original on 2019-07-06. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  8. ↑ "L'Initiative Multilatérale sur le Paludisme, Coordonnées du Personnel". www.mimalaria.org. Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  9. ↑ "GISAID - Testhome". gisaid.org. GISAID. Retrieved 20 January 2023. Prof. Dr. Francine Ntoumi looks back on her surveillance work in Africa during the pandemic. In this profile she shares her views on global health equity, lessons learned, the impact of technology, and the importance of international collaboration that flows through GISAID's Regional Hub in Central Africa. A champion for scientific leadership in Africa and an extraordinary partner, her profile marks the first in a series of features where GISAID is spotlighting the contributions of our diverse community.
  10. ↑ "Scientific Advisory Committee". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  11. ↑ Advisory Panel Archived 2020-03-22 at the Wayback Machine Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) .
  12. ↑ Governance Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
  13. ↑ "Scientific Advisory Committee". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  14. ↑ Scientific Advisory Committee European Vaccine Initiative (EVI).
  15. ↑ Governance Fondation Mérieux.
  16. ↑ "GISAID - Governance". gisaid.org. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  17. ↑ Board of Directors International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
  18. ↑ Scientific Advisory Board The Global Health Network (TGHN), University of Oxford.
  19. ↑ African Advisory Committee for Research and Development World Health Organization (WHO).
  20. 1 2 Kihindou, Freddy. "Recherche scientifique : Le Pr Francine Ntoumi, Prix Georg Forster de la recherche 2015". www.lasemaineafricaine.net (in French). Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  21. ↑ "Professor Francine Ntoumi - WHO | Regional Office for Africa". www.afro.who.int. Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  22. ↑ "Prix scientifique "Kwame Nkrumah" de l'Union africaine : La Professeure Francine Ntoumi, lauréate de l'édition 2012". diasporas-noires.com (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  23. ↑ "Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation - In the Battle Against Malaria". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Archived from the original on 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  24. ↑ "Dossier: ils ont été remarqués en 2016". adiac-congo.com (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-08.
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