The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition welcomes the nomination of one of its Steering Committee members, Professor Francine Ntoumi, who was appointed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) following a French Ministerial Order of February 8, 2021.
As the Founder and Director General of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research (Republic of the Congo), Prof. Ntoumi was one of the 77 founding signatories of a call for action published in The Lancet in April 2020, urging international research collaboration and coordination to support COVID-19 clinical research in resource-limited countries. This call for action launched the coalition of scientists, physicians, funders, and policymakers to leverage their collective expertise to speed up research adapted to resource-limited settings. Since then, she has served as a member of the coalition’s Steering Committee and of the Data Sharing Working Group.
Prof. Ntoumi is a Congolese molecular biologist by training. She is a Lecturer in Immunology at the Marien Ngouabi University, Republic of Congo and Associate Professor and Head of a research group at the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She serves as a member of several scientific committees and international scientific networks in Africa and Europe. She also brings her expertise to the African Union as a member of the High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies.
Prof. Ntoumi’s main area of research is malaria, and throughout her career, she has trained African scientists of different nationalities in disciplines such as immunology and molecular epidemiology. Since January 2009, Professor Ntoumi has been involved in building capacity for biomedical research in Central Africa through the Central Africa Network on Clinical Research (CANTAM) and the pan-African PANDORA-ID-Net. In 2012, she was awarded the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award for Women and the RICE (Réseau International des Congolais de l’extérieur) Award. She received the Georg Forster Prize in Germany and the Christophe Mérieux Prize in France, in 2015 and 2016 respectively. In 2016, she received the Gold Medal for Scientific Research from the Head of State of the Republic of Congo.
IRD is a French public research institution that supports an original model of equitable scientific partnership and interdisciplinary, citizen, sustainability science committed to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is an institutional member of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition.
Photo credit: David Matthiessen