Epidemiology and ecology of Neisseria species in the African meningitis belt before and after vaccine implementation

Kanny is a biochemist with research interests in host-pathogen interactions and diagnostics in bacterial diseases. Her work at the Center for Vaccine Development, Mali, has focused on studying the epidemiology of meningococcus carriage in the African meningitis belt, with the MenAfriCar Consortium. During her Fellowship Kanny aims to apply molecular biology techniques to study the changes in epidemiology and ecology of the Neisseria species following vaccination against the dominant meningitis-causing strain, serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis. She also intends to study the genetic determinants of Neisseria meningitidis virulence. Kanny will undertake a DPhil at the University of Oxford and will be supervised by Professor Martin Maiden and Professor Samba Sow.

This grant was awarded under the scheme's previous name of Training Fellowships in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.