Ronald Galiwango, Postdoc NIH funded BRecA program

Ronald Galiwango, Postdoc NIH funded BRecA program

I am currently a Postdoctoral fellow under Nurturing Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Capacity in Africa (BRecA), a programme funded by US’ National Institutes of Health (NIH). I also teach on the MSc/PhD programme at the African Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data Sciences (ACE), Makerere University. I am affiliated to the Makerere University/UVRI Infection and Immunity Research Training Programme (MUII-plus) and the Centre for Computational Biology, Uganda Christian University.

My interest generally lies in using computational approaches to answer epidemiology research questions.

These computational approaches include: Mathematical and statistical modelling; Social and contact network building an analysis; Genomic data analysis including Whole Genome Sequence Analysis and Data science and machine learning (AI).

Main data of interest includes: Social and contact networks; Mobility patterns; Air quality data; Data on meteorological conditions (weather data); Pathogen genomic data (such as Whole Genome Sequence data); Human Genetic data and Other epidemiological data of individuals such as patient demographics and clinical characteristics.

My focus is on using the above computational approaches and data to aid in: Understanding the transmission of infectious diseases (including patters and drivers) and the interplay between infectious and non-communicable diseases; Identifying risk factors for (predictors of) disease and disease outcomes; Evaluating the impact of health related interventions; Formulation and analysis of mathematical and statistical models; Determining health, social and economic impacts of health related social shocks such as pandemics.

News

Oct 2021: Our manuscript entitled “Employing phylogenetic tree shape statistics to resolve the underlying host population structure” has been accepted for publication in BMC Bioinformatics.

Oct 2021: I attended the MUII-plus Infection and Immunity Symposium (2021) that showcased success stories and highlights of Infection and Immunity research (IIR) in Uganda, and forged a plan towards the future of IIR.

Sep 2021: We have been awarded a U2R training grant by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Makerere University Data Science Research Training to Strengthen Evidence-Based Health Innovation, Intervention and Policy (MakDARTA)”; From 2021-09 to 2026-07; Grant No. 1U2RTW012116-01.

Sep 2021: Our manuscript entitled “Bioinformatics Mentorship in a Resource Limited Setting” has been published in Briefings in Bioinformatics.

Sep 2021: Our manuscript entitled “Association between tuberculosis in men and social network structure in Kampala, Uganda” has been published in BMC Infectious Diseases.

Jun 2021: Our manuscript entitled “Assessing a transmission network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in an African city using single nucleotide polymorphism threshold analysis” has been published in Microbiology Open.

Dec 2020: We have been awarded a grant by the Global South AI4COVID Program titled “End-to-end AI and data systems for targeted surveillance and management of COVID-19 and future pandemics affecting Uganda (COAST)”; Grant No. 109630-001/002. Learn more about the project by visiting the project website: https://coastv1-a7dd67bb-d488-44c3-ba50.cranecloud.io/.

Aug 2020: A pre-print of our manuscript entitled “Modelling the Impact and Public Health Response to COVID-19 in Uganda” is now live on SSRN.

June 2020: I have been awarded a post-doc by the NIH funded BRecA program at Makerere University, Uganda,a program that aims to build Bioinformatics research capacity in Uganda and the African continent at large.