Amanda is a vibrant Ugandan medical doctor who attained her degree in 2013 at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. After a one year’s internship, her research career began! She has been privileged to work with reputable research organizations in my home country.
From 2013 to 2018, she was employed by the Joint Clinical Research Centre(JCRC),Lubowa, where she was involved in clinical management and research of people living with HIV. She participated in a major international randomized phase III clinical Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Therapy (START) trial which informed WHO’s ‘Test and Treat’ approach to HIV management.
From 2018 todate, she has been working with Uganda Virus Research Institute- International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (UVRI-IAVI) HIV vaccine program. She participated in a multi-center sub-Saharan randomized HPTN 084 phase III clinical trial in women that recently demonstrated the superiority of long acting injectable Cabotegravir as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) against HIV as compared to oral Truvada.
She noted personal knowledge gaps in research particularly in the areas of research communication and management. She feels extremely privileged that this month of June 2021,she has begun a new journey as a Clinical Development Research Fellow at the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) in Germany funded by WHO-TDR/EDCTP. The focus of her hands-on training will be vaccine Development and project Management. She looks forward to multi-disciplinary exposure and networking during her apprentieship with EVI. She already anticipates that the learning curve will be very steep and that she will come out a more seasoned researcher for the benefit of my home country Uganda and the world at large. She is very excited about the year and truly grateful to WHO-TDR/EDCTP and EVI for making this possible!