We contribute to malaria control and elimination efforts both locally and globally by using genomic tools to characterize the malaria parasite.

Meet Dr. Anita Ghansah

Anita Ghansah is a Senior Research Fellow at the Parasitology Department of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana where she is involved in translational research into malaria and other infectious diseases. She has a PhD in Genetic Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine.  

Her research revolves around understanding the role of human and pathogen genetic variations in infectious diseases with the ultimate goal of applying genomic research output to inform malaria control and elimination. Over the years, she has focused on how parasite genetic diversity and resistance to antimalarial drugs influence the epidemiology of malaria and the implications on therapeutic and vaccination strategies. She is also involved with the H3Africa Kidney disease network, as the genetic epidemiologist in charge of the kidney genomics laboratory at NMIMR.

Her research work has contributed to the body of knowledge on parasite diversity and drug resistance of P. falciparum in Ghana and in Africa to inform malaria control. She is one of the 14 inaugural Calestous Juma Science Leadership Fellows which is a prestigious Gates foundation leadership initiative aimed at training resilient science leaders in communities around the world.