Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, FACP, FIDSA

Dr. Ogbuagu is a Associate Professor of Medicine, in the clinician-educator track and Director of the Yale antivirals and vaccines research program (formerly HIV Clinical Trials program) of the Yale AIDS Program, Section of Infectious Diseases of the Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Ogbuagu's clinical responsibilities include educating and training medical students, residents and infectious diseases fellows in various capacities in inpatient and outpatient settings; and through structured course work and other teaching sessions. As a faculty of the HIV training track of the Yale-Internal Medicine primary care program and since 2013 as a faculty of the Human Resources for Health program in Rwanda, he has extensive experience with curriculum development, structuring of residency training programs, and mentoring residents and faculty. In Rwanda specifically, he has and continues to mentor medical residents and junior faculty in quality improvement and clinical research projects that are locally relevant and addressing important infectious diseases-related problems (particularly HIV/AIDS and antimicrobial resistance).

Furthermore, he has facilitated meaningful educational and research collaborations between faculty and trainees across institutions. As the program director of World Bank and HRSA-funded efforts supporting the Liberia College of Physicians and surgeons (LCPS)?run Internal medicine residency training program, he has overseen the selection and deployment of faculty to Liberia, and is responsible for educational programs and activities aimed at strengthening the residency training program. Through an award form National Academy of Sciences and USAID, he trained Liberia's first board certified Infectious Diseases Physician who completed training in 2022 (West African College of Physicians.) Overall, his expertise and collective experiences to date have positioned him to design and run successful projects around capacity building in low-resource settings including developing and implementing innovative and robust medical training and research programs for faculty, fellows, residents and students.

Since 2017, he has been the Director of the Yale AIDS Program HIV clinical trials program, and a principal investigator on numerous pharmacokinetic, phase 2 and 3 safety and efficacy trials of novel antiviral compounds (HIV). He is also a lead investigator on the international DISCOVER trial evaluating TAF/FTC vs TDF/FTC for HIV prevention among MSM and transgender women as well as PURPOSE-2 trial investigating lenacapavir for PrEP for MSM, transmasculinizing and transfeminizing as well as gender non binary individuals who have sex with men.

In response to the COVID pandemic, he has been Yale principal investigator on multiple investigational therapeutic and preventative clinical trials for COVID-19 including remdesivir (now FDA approved), leronlimab and remdesivir and tocilizumab combination therapy as well as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Sanofi COVID Vaccine trials.