Professor James Wood (University of Cambridge) – Research Co-Principal Investigator and Admin. Leader
James Wood is Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Cambridge. He is a veterinary epidemiologist and joined the Department in Cambridge in 2005, initially as Director of the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium, prior to appointment as Alborada Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science in 2009. He studies the dynamics of emerging infectious diseases, including viral infections of fruit bats in West Africa, focused in Ghana, mammalian influenza, rabies and bovine tuberculosis. Funders include BBSRC, EU FP7 (Antigone Consortium), ESPA, Defra, the RAPIDD program of the Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, Fogarty International Centre, National Institute of Health and the Alborada Trust.
He has an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1991) and a PhD from the Open University (1997) which he completed when Head of Epidemiology at the Animal Health Trust. He is an RVC graduate (1988), having also completed a BSc in Physiology at UCL (1985).
Prof Glyn Hewinson (APHA) – Research Co-Principal Investigator
Prog Glyn Hewinson is the joint research lead in the project. He takes a leading role in annual project metings and provides the project with important developments in the field of TB.
Dr Stefan Berg (APHA) – Project Co-Coordinator and WP 1 Co-LeaderDr Stefan Berg is the Northern project coordinator and day-to-day manager for the ETHICOBOTS Programme working closely with Dr Adane Mihret – Southern Coordinator. He is employed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and is part of work package 1 investigating on-farm epidemiological studies.
Dr Adane Mihret (AHRI) – Project Co-Coordinator
Adane Mihret received his DVM degree in Veterinary Medicine in 1995 from Addis Ababa University and obtained his MSc degree in Medical Microbiology in 2005 from the same University. He then joined the Armauer Hansen Research Institute as a Research Assistant and worked until 2013 in BMGF and EDCTP funded tuberculosis biomarker consortium projects. In these projects he was working as a co-investigator and project coordinator. In 2013 he received his PhD from Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
His PhD work mainly focused on identifying discriminatory transcriptional signatures of immune response genes and plasma cytokine level that could potentially distinguish the different clinical outcomes of M. tuberculosis infection. Currently he is working as a postdoctoral Scientist. Apart from supervising postgraduate students and leading a number of research projects at AHRI, he is also teaching Microbiology and advanced Immunology courses at Addis Ababa University, School of Medicine.
Dr Getachew Gari (NAHDIC) – WP 1 Co-Leader
Getachew Gari is a head of Epidemiology Unit at the National Animal Health Diagnostic and Investigation Center (NAHDIC), Ministry of Agriculture. He got his PhD on “Epidemiology and Economic impact of Lumpy Skin Disease in Ethiopia” in 2011 from Toulouse University, France. He obtained MSc and DVM degree from Addis Ababa University, College of Agriculture and Vet. Medicine in 2004 and 1989, respectively. He has lead different completed and ongoing research projects funded by FAO and government treasury on national priority animal disease problems such as Study on major infectious diseases of back yard chicken, LSD vaccine efficacy trial, Epidemiology and Socio-economic impact of PPR, Participatory disease surveillance of Sheep and goats diseases in Afar Region with particular focus on PPR and SGP diseases, PPR post vaccination sero-monitoring in sheep and goats found in Pastoral and Agro-pastoral eco-system of Ethiopia. He supported the development of the national PPR control and eradication strategy and a technical committee member of PPR control and eradication at the regional IGAD level. He often visited Jimma Veterinary School as a guest lecturer and various veterinary colleges as a Jury member of the external examiners board.
Prof Henrietta L. Moore (UCL) – WP 2 and 5 Leader
Henrietta L. Moore is a distinguished social anthropologist and is actively involved in the application of social science insights to business, the arts and public policy. She is also Chair and Co-founder of SHM, a London based consultancy. Professor Moore is one of the UK’s leading social and cultural theorists. Her work has developed a distinctive approach to the comparative analysis of social change and to the intersections between culture and globalisation. More recent research has focused on virtual worlds, new technologies, contemporary art and the relationship between self-imagining and democratic political decision-making.
Her work draws on her extensive ethnographic research in Africa, primarily in northern Kenya where she has been working for over thirty years, to explore social and cultural change, land use and environmental change, and local experiences of and contribution to processes of globalisation.
Prof Gobena Ameni (ALIPB) – WP 3 Leader
Dr Gobena Ameni gained his undergraduate degree from Addis Ababa University (AAU) in September 1990 and graduated with a DVM from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Addis Ababa University in July 1996. He started his career as a researcher at the Institute of Pathobiology (now renamed as Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology), Addis Ababa University, in 1997.
He did his PhD at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (UK) obtaining his PhD in Microbiolgy in 2009. He also earned a diploma in Immunology from the same College in 2009. His research interest on bovine tuberculosis developed at the start of his career and have further developed through his doctoral studies. In addition to bovine tuberculosis, Dr Gobena has developed interest on human tuberculosis and equine histoplasmosis.
Dr Abraham Aseffa (AHRI) – WP 4 LeaderAbraham graduated in medicine from the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He specialised in Medical Microbiology at the University of Leipzig in Germany where he did his dissertation on the development of an attenuated live vaccine against Listeria monocytogenes. Dr Aseffa has been working at the Armauer Hansen research Institute (AHRI) since 2001, and is currently AHRI’s Scientific Director. He has substantial experience in TB/HIV, leishmaniasis and infectious disease. Dr Aseffa is an active contributor to many professional associations and initiatives in Ethiopia and Africa. He has shown particular interest in capacity building efforts for health research and ethics.
He is head of WP4 which is investigating the prevalence of bTB in high risk human populations.
Dr Rea Tschopp (Swiss TPH) – WP 6 Leader and WP 2&5 Advisor
Rea Tschopp graduated as a veterinarian from the Veterinary Faculty of Bern (Switzerland) in 1998 whilst also completing 3 years of human medicine modules. While practicing in Switzerland as a veterinary surgeon she completed her veterinary doctorate degree in 2001 on Mycoplasma infection in fattening calves.
She completed an Msc on “wildlife disease and management” at the Royal Veterinary College and the Institute of Zoology in London in 2002. The following years were spent working as a professional wildlife veterinarian in Dubai (UAE), Nepal, Belize and South Africa.
Rea completed her PhD in Epidemiology on “Bovine tuberculosis at the livestock-human-wildlife interface in Ethiopia” in 2008 from the Swiss Tropical and Public health Institute, University of Basel. The research was funded by the Wellcome trust. She has been working in Ethiopia since 2005 on zoonotic diseases such as BTB/TB, rabies and brucellosis, and is leading the “Zoonosis and One health” research at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) as an epidemiologist co-researcher for both AHRI and Swiss TPH.
Rea has also a strong interest in pastoral health including mother and child health, animal production system and conservation medicine. Rea is a guest lecturer on wildlife medicine, epidemiology and One-Health at various Ethiopian universities and is a wildlife veterinarian consultant. She is the WP6 leader on the ETHICOBOTS project.
Dr Dawit Alemu (EIAR) – WP 2&5 Coordinator
Dr Dawit Alemu is Senior Researcher and Director of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Gender Research Directorate at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). He has been associated with EIAR since 1999 and his research focused on agricultural policy and marketing issues with an emphasis to agricultural input markets.
Working in the two social science packages, 2 & 5, Dawit is investigating trading and risk management strategies as well as health and illness management in poor families.
Prof Paul Wenzel Geissler (University of Cambridge) – WP 2&5 Advisor
With a comprehensive interdisciplinary background in social anthropology and zoology, Geissler is a professor of social anthropology at Oslo University and part time director of research in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge University. Professor Geissler collaborates on WP2 and 5, conducting the social science research for the ETHICOBOTS project together with Professor Henrietta Moore and Dr Dawit Alemu.
Dr Andrew Conlan (University of Cambridge) – WP 6 Modeller
Andrew Conlan is a University Lecturer in Epidemiology within the Disease Dynamics Unit (DDU) at the Department of Veterinary Medicine in Cambridge. He is an epidemiologist and mathematical modeller with a particular interest in the use of mathematical models to inform policy on the control of infectious diseases. He has worked on the control of bovine Tuberculosis in Great Britain since 2008, applying novel methods of Bayesian inference to estimate predictive herd level models. These models have been used to support policy decisions on the use of testing and to inform the design of field trials for the potential supplementary use of cattle vaccination.
Andrew obtained a MPhys degree in Mathematical Physics from the University of Edinburgh before moving to the Department of Zoology in Cambridge in 2002 to undertake a PhD with Bryan Grenfell on the dynamics of childhood infectious diseases. He has remained in Cambridge since then, furthering his research on disease dynamics in the Department of Applied Mathematics (DAMTP) before arriving at the Department of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr Noel H Smith (APHA) – WP 1&4 Advisor
Dr. Noel Smith is the Head of bTB Genotyping at APHA, Weybridge and his team is responsible for genotyping over 300 bacterial isolates of bovine tuberculosis a month.
Noel was trained as a microbiologist and molecular biologist but decided early on that “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution”. He arranged to have post-doc training with some of the best bacterial population geneticists in the world, culminating in a long collaboration with John Maynard Smith at the University of Sussex on the importance of ‘sex’ in bacteria.
Over a decade ago he became the Head of bTB Genotyping at APHA, Weybridge and he curates one of the largest bacterial reference collections in the world.
Dr Martin Vordermeier (APHA) – WP3 Advisor
His current research interests are aimed at the investigation of immune responses against mycobacterial infections to support the development of vaccines and diagnostic reagents against bovine tuberculosis in cattle.
Marton is also interested in bovine TB in cattle in Africa, in particular the differences in the susceptibility to bovine tuberculosis between endogenous and exotic breeds in East Africa.
Mr Hawult Taye (AHRI) – WP4 RA
Hawult Taye is a young researcher at Armauer Hansen Research Institute (Ethiopia). He has been working as study physician and research assistant in different epidemiological studies and clinical trials. He graduated with a B.sc degree in health science from Haromay University in 2006 and MPH (Master of public health) from University of Gondar (Ethiopia) in 2011.
Hawult currently works on the ETHIOCOBOTS (Ethiopian Control of Bovine Tuberculosis) project as research assistant of WP4 (Targeted on Epidemiology of M.bovis in human) and has been developing his PhD proposal entitled “Epidemiology of tuberculosis and role of M. bovis in settings with high dairy development in Ethiopia.
Dr Felix Roth (Swiss TPH) – WP 6 Economic Modeller
Felix Roth works as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels and is a post-doctoral lecturer at the faculty of economics at the University of Göttingen.
Dr Gizat Almaw (NAHDIC) – WP 1 Research AssistantGizat Almaw received his undergraduate degree (DVM) in 1999. He went on to study a masters in Tropical Veterinary Medicine from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia in 2004. He did his MSc thesis on “Bovine mastitis and antibiotic resistance patterns of major pathogens”. He started his carrier as a veterinarian in government veterinary service and then joined University of Gondar, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and taught different courses. Currently he is a researcher at National Animal Health Diagnostic and Investigation Center (NAHDIC), Bacteriology Laboratory and work for ETHICOBOTS project as a research assistant in Work package 1-epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in central Ethiopia.
Dr Getnet Mekonnen (NAHDIC) – WP 1 Research Assistant
Getnet did his undergraduate degree in veterinary medicine at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (1995-2000). He also did his MSc degree in the Veterinary Faculty of Utrecht University, The Netherlands (2004-2006).
Allocated to work package 1, Getnet is a research assistant working on the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in the selected sites of Ethiopia.
Mr Berecha Bayissa (ALIPB) – WP 3 Research Assistant
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Mr Kassia Demissie (AHRI) – WP 6 Research Assistant
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Dr Lawrence Yamuah (AHRI) – Project Database Manager
Dr Lawrence Yamuah is currently a Senior Scientist / Data Manager (Head of the Data Management Unit) at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which involves him in many disease portfolios including TB/HIV/AIDS, Leprosy, Malaria, Leishmania, working in close collaboration with of M.Sc. and PhD Students on their project work.
He has a B.Sc in Biochemistry and obtained an M.Sc in Systems Analysis at City University in UK. He completed his PhD in Health Informatics from City University, London, UK. He spent 9 years working at the Medical research Council in The Gambia, Africa on infectious diseases and has been working for AHRI for the last eleven (11) years.
As well as managing the implementation of the core database spanning all work packages for the ETHICOBOTS project, Lawrence will manage data management issues across all institutions working on the project.
Mr Alan Clarke (University of Cambridge) – Project Management
Northern administrator of the ETHICOBOTS project, organising purchasing, managing finance, arranging events and liaising with stakeholders to solve problems and provide support and planning for the project.
Mr Bamlak Tessema (AHRI) – Project Management
Mr Bamlak Tessema earned his B.A degree in sociology and social anthropology in 2012 from Addis Ababa University. He joined the Armauer Hansen Research Institute as a clinical research nurse and TB clinician on BMG GC6-74 project, later being promoted to clinical research coordinator. He currently works as a clinical research coordinator on an EDCTP funded project to improve childhood vaccinations and defences against seasonal and pandemic influenza.
Bamlak is also a leading international referee in Ethiopia. He began refereeing during 2003 GC and became a FIFA international in 2009 GC, refereeing his first international match, Djibouti vs Namibia in 2010.
In 2015 he was match official for the Africa cup of nations in Equatorial Guinea, officiating the Cameroon vs Guinea, match.
He is currently a match official for the Under 17’s FIFA World Cup in Chile.
