Onyema Ogbuagu

I am an 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.

My 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 as a faculty of the Human Resources for Health program in Rwanda (2013 to 2019), I have extensive experience with curriculum development, structuring of residency training programs, and mentoring residents and faculty. In Rwanda specifically, I have and still continue 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 epidemic and antimicrobial resistance).

Furthermore, I have 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, I have overseen the selection and deployment of faculty to Liberia, and am responsible for educational programs and activities aimed at strengthening the residency training program. Through an award from National Academy of Sciences / USAID, I have trained Liberia's first-ever Infectious Diseases physician who achieved fellowship of the West African College of Physicians in that specialty in 2022. Overall, my expertise and collective experiences to date have positioned me 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, I have 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, SARS CoV-2). I am 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 evaluating long acting lenacapavir for PrEP among MSM, transmasculinizing and transfeminizing individuals as well as gender non binary individuals who have sex with men. I am also funded by NIAID (2023-25) for work advancing HIV PrEP for adolescent girls and young women in Liberia.

In response to the COVID pandemic, I have 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 GSK/Sanofi COVID-19 Vaccine trials. IN addition, I am also the PI on multiple ongoing trials evaluating mRNA vaccines for other infectious diseases and vaccines for bacterial infection.