Julie Makani

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Julie Makani
Fogarty-nih-50th-symposium-speaker-julie-makani (41926010224).jpg
Makani, May 2018
Born1970 (age 53–54)
NationalityTanzanian
Alma mater Weruweru Secondary School
Awards Royal Society Pfizer Award, 2011
Scientific career
FieldsMedical research
Institutions Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg "By the time I started working two of my cousins had already died from sickle cell anemia", Royal Society Pfizer Award 2011

Julie Makani (born 1970) is a Tanzanian medical researcher. From 2014 she is Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). Also a visiting fellow and consultant to the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, she is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. [1] In 2011, she received the Royal Society Pfizer Award for her work with sickle cell disease. [2]

Contents

Education

After attending St Constantine's Primary school in Arusha, Tanzania, [3] Makani trained in medicine in Tanzania at Muhimbili University, receiving her medical degree in 1994. [4] In 1997, she attended post-graduate studies in internal medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, on a Commonwealth scholarship. [3] From there she went to Oxford as a Research Fellow at Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. [1] She received a four-year PhD training fellowship from the Wellcome Trust in 2003 to study sickle cell disease in Tanzania. She completed her PhD on the clinical epidemiology of sickle cell disease (SCD). [5]

Biomedical research

In 2004, she received a Wellcome Trust training fellowship and established the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), with prospective surveillance of over 2,000 SCD patients. [6] In sickle cell disease, red blood cells are abnormally shaped, causing problems with the flow of blood through the body and the resulting transport of oxygen throughout the body. A genetic disorder, the disease causes reoccurring episodes of pain and severe organ damage which can result in death. [7] An estimated eight to eleven thousand children per year are born with sickle-cell disease in Tanzania. [8] The focus of Makani's initial work at Muhimbili was to examine factors such as malaria, bacterial infections and stroke, which are considered to significantly contribute to illness and death when interventions are available. [9]

In collaboration with colleagues, she has developed a biomedical research and healthcare programme which is one of the largest SCD cohorts from one centre in the world. [6] Her current interest is in the role of anaemia and foetal haemoglobin in influencing disease burden in SCD. [10]

Makani is working with colleagues to establish networks at a national level in the regional Sickle Cell Disease Research Network of East and Central Africa (REDAC) and Africa (Sickle CHARTA – Consortium for Health, Advocacy, Research and Training in Africa). [7] Makani is co-founder of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania. [11] On a global level she is on the technical advisory group of Global SCD Research Network, co-chairing the working group responsible for hydroxyurea therapy in Africa. [7]

Her aim is to use sickle cell disease as a model to establish scientific and healthcare solutions in Africa that are locally relevant as well as having global significance. Achieving success in sickle cell disease will illustrate that with effective global partnerships, inequities in biomedical science and health can be addressed. [12]

Fellowships and other awards

Makani received a training (2003) and intermediate fellowship (2011) from the Wellcome Trust for the sickle cell disease programme. [6] In 2007, she received a fellowship to attend the TEDGlobal meeting in Arusha, Tanzania. In 2009, she received an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship from the African Leadership Institute. [13]

In 2011, she was awarded The Royal Society Pfizer Award. The award grant will be used for research to provide a better understanding of the molecular, genetic and environmental mechanisms of sickle cell disease. In granting the award, Professor Lorna Casselton of the Royal Society, said: "We are extremely pleased to recognise such an impressive individual with the Royal Society Pfizer Award this year... We hope that Dr Makani stands as role-model for other young Africans scientists wishing to make a difference on their continent and worldwide." [2]

In 2019, she was included in the list of BBC 100 Women. [14]

Related Research Articles

Nicosan, also known as Hemoxin, Niprisan, or Nix-0699, is a phytochemical which was studied in sickle-cell disease (SCD). As of 2017 it does not appear to be commercially available, as the only manufacturer, which was in Nigeria, has stopped producing it due to financial problems.

The Epidemiology Data Center (EDC) is recognized as an official University Center at the University of Pittsburgh; and is part of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. The EDC was formed in 1980 by Katherine M. Detre, M.D., Dr.P.H., and is currently under the co-direction of Maria Mori Brooks, Ph.D., Steven H. Belle, Ph.D. and Stephen R. Wisniewski, Ph.D.

The Royal Society Africa Prize has been awarded by the Royal Society since 2006 to African-based researchers at the start of their career who are making innovative contributions to the biological sciences in Africa. £60,000 is awarded as a grant for the recipient to carry out a research project that is linked to an African centre of scientific excellence, normally a University or equivalent research centre, and a further £5,000 is given directly to the prizewinner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sickle cell disease</span> Group of genetic blood disorders

Sickle cell disease (SCD), one of the hemoglobinopathies, is a group of blood disorders typically inherited. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blood cells. This leads to a rigid, sickle-like shape under certain circumstances. Problems in sickle cell disease typically begin around 5 to 6 months of age. A number of health problems may develop, such as attacks of pain, anemia, swelling in the hands and feet, bacterial infections, and stroke. Long-term pain may develop as people get older. The average life expectancy in the developed world is 40 to 60 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences</span> University in Ilala District, Dar es Salaam Region

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) ( Chuo Kikuu cha Afya na Sayansi Shirikishi Muhimbili, in Swahili) is a public university located in Upanga West, Ilala District of Dar es Salaam Region in Tanzania. It is accredited by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter J. Ratcliffe</span> British biologist; Nobel laureate in medicine

Sir Peter John Ratcliffe, FRS, FMedSci is a British physician-scientist who is trained as a nephrologist. He was a practising clinician at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine and head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford from 2004 to 2016. He has been a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford since 2004. In 2016 he became Clinical Research Director at the Francis Crick Institute, retaining a position at Oxford as a member of the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research and director of the Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford.

Marilyn Hughes Gaston is a physician and researcher. She was the first black woman to direct the Bureau of Primary Health Care in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She is most famous for her work studying sickle cell disease (SCD).

Adeyinka Gladys Falusi, FAS NPOM, is a Nigerian Professor of haematology and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

Graham Roger Serjeant is a British medical researcher who studied sickle-cell disease in Jamaica, setting up screening programmes and a cohort study from birth. He directed the MRC Laboratories at the University of the West Indies and instituted the Sickle Cell Trust (Jamaica), a local charity. He has written four books and approximately 500 papers on sickle-cell disease. His work addressed the variability of sickle-cell disease with special emphasis on developing low-cost models of management suitable to countries with large numbers of patients and limited resources.

Angella Dorothea Ferguson is an American pediatrician known for her groundbreaking research on sickle cell disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketan J. Patel</span>

Ketan Jayakrishna Patel is a British-Kenyan scientist who is Director of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford. Until 2020 he was a tenured principal investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).

Felix Israel Domeno Konotey-Ahulu FGA, FRCPSG, FRCP, FWACP is a Ghanaian physician and scientist who is Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and a consultant physician/genetic counsellor, Haemoglobinopathy/Sickle Cell States, in Harley Street, London. He is one of the world's foremost experts on sickle-cell disease.

Yvette Francis-McBarnette was an American pediatrician and a pioneer in treating children with sickle cell anaemia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Callender</span>

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Sampat Tukaram Ramteke was an engineer and social activist from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. In 2018, he was conferred the Padma Shri civilian honour posthumously, for his contribution in raising awareness in India about the sickle cell disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swee Lay Thein</span> Malaysian haematologist

Swee Lay Thein is a Malaysian haematologist and physician-scientist who is Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health. She works on the pathophysiology of haemoglobin disorders including sickle cell disease and thalassemia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwaku Ohene-Frempong</span> Ghanaian physician (1946–2022)

Kwaku Ohene-Frempong was a Ghanaian pediatric hematologist-oncologist and an expert in sickle cell disease (SCD). Ohene-Frempong grew up in Ghana and was a standout athlete in track-and-field, later competing for Yale University as well as Ghana at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games. He continued his medical training in the United States, where he completed medical school, pediatrics residency and a pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship. With a professional interest in SCD, Ohene-Frempong was a physician and involved in public health initiatives at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and later the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Pennsylvania. He continued professional relationships with Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana where he later became a full-time physician after retiring from CHOP. In Ghana, he established public health initiatives for SCD screening in newborns, as well as an SCD clinic for patients with the disease.

References

  1. 1 2 "Dr Julie Makani". Nuffield Department of Medicine. Archived from the original on 13 July 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Tanzanian scientist wins Royal Society Pfizer Award for Sickle Cell Disease research". The Royal Society. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  3. 1 2 Mwangi, Tabitha (6 November 2011). "Painful crisis: Dr Julie Makani's fight against sickle cell disease". The East African Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "DR JULIE MAKANI: Feeling the pain of sickle cell anaemia". Africa Review. 2 April 2012. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "Dr Julie Makani - Principal Investigator (Haematology)". Muhimbili Wellcome Programme. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Muhimbili Wellcome Programme". Muhimbili Wellcome Programme. Archived from the original on 19 June 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Sangare, Nene. "FABA (For Africa By Africans): Sickle Cell Disease Research". Africa Strictly Business. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  8. ↑ Gribbin, Alice. "The NS Interview: Julie Makani, tropical medicine researcher". New Statesman . Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  9. ↑ Makani, Julie; Kirkham, Fenella J.; Komba, Albert; Ajala-Agbo, Tolulope; Otieno, Godfrey; Fegan, Gregory; Williams, Thomas N.; Marsh, Kevin; Newton, Charles R. (May 2009). "Risk factors for high cerebral blood flow velocity and death in Kenyan children with Sickle Cell Anaemia: role of haemoglobin oxygen saturation and febrile illness". British Journal of Haematology. 145 (4): 529–532. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2141.2009.07660.x. PMC   3001030 . PMID   19344425.
  10. ↑ Makani, J.; Menzel, S.; Nkya, S.; Cox, S. E.; Drasar, E.; Soka, D.; Komba, A. N.; Mgaya, J.; Rooks, H.; Vasavda, N.; Fegan, G.; Newton, C. R.; Farrall, M.; Lay Thein, S. (10 November 2010). "Genetics of fetal hemoglobin in Tanzanian and British patients with sickle cell anemia" (PDF). Blood. 117 (4): 1390–1392. doi:10.1182/blood-2010-08-302703. PMC   5555384 . PMID   21068433 . Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  11. ↑ "Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania". Archived from the original on 26 November 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  12. ↑ "Julie Makani biography". Global Sickle Cell Disease Network. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship Program". The Personal Blog of Lanre Dahunsi. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  14. ↑ "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 16 October 2019.

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