María del Mar started her fellowship at EVI on 9th January 2017. A native of Colombia, María del Mar is a medical doctor and MSc in Epidemiology. She works as a Clinical Investigator at CIDEIM, a Colombian non-profit institution of Biomedical Research and Training, since 2012. Trained in both good health research practice (GHRP) and good clinical practice (GCP), she has participated in several research studies ranging from translational and epidemiological research to clinical trials, all aimed to improve management of patients with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) in Colombia.

After completion of her EDCTP/TDR Clinical Research and Development fellowship at EVI, María del Mar returned to CIDEIM as Clinical Investigator, where she is coordinating clinical research projects for CL.

“The fellowship at EVI has been an excellent experience. I have learned critical aspects of product development, especially for preclinical and early clinical phases. Interaction with sponsors, funders and clinical trials teams that were part of my training gave me greater understanding of clinical development questions from a strategic and sponsor’s perspective. The commitment of my mentors and the support of the EVI staff made this year full of meaningful experiences, both professional and personally. The program centred on my needs and was flexible enough to allow continuing working on certain activities of my home institution, which facilitated my reintegration to CIDEIM. As part of my re-entry, I am implementing a Project Management strategy to improve tracking of study progress in my home institution.”