Jos, Nigeria

Dr. Jonah Musa and Dr. Purnima Madhivanan have been collaborating since 2019 in the prevention and control of cervical cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their first project was a scoping review of community-engaged approaches to cervical cancer prevention and control. Their second project is a systematic review on the association between infections and statins and biofilm (currently in progress). Dr. Musa is a Fogarty/NIH trained physician-scientist currently working in NIH FIC cancer training programs. Dr. Madhivanan has been an NIH FIC global health mentor and collaborating PI for the past 9 years. As an infectious disease epidemiologist with strong emphasis on cervical cancer screening research, she complements Dr. Musa’s research on cervical cancer screening, survival outcomes for invasive cervical cancer, and vaginal microbiome in cervical precancer and invasive cancer.

The University of Jos has 1,263 academic staff, 2,140 non-academic and support staff and a total enrollment of 13,789 undergraduate and 8,094 postgraduate students (2015/2016 academic session). The University has 10 faculties, 10 directorates and 8 centers. The University has attracted external research support from various donors and funders. The Department of Mathematics received a research grant from Hewlett Packard to develop computer models in teaching and research and the Department of Geography received a McMaster grant for spatial research. A 9-year (2004-2013) grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York Grant supported capacity development in research management and administration, information and communication technology, female student empowerment, infrastructure development, financial management and corporate governance. The University’s natural scientists and technologists in the Centre for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering were supported by a World Bank STEP-B project grant to engage in research and the commercial cultivation of Artemisia annua, the key plant in Artemisin-based Combination Therapy (ACT). The Japan International Cooperation Agency furnished a laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry. Seed Research Grants of $5,000 are being awarded to middle and junior academics to help them pilot some of their studies and publish in academic journals that are indexed in PubMed. The African Center of Excellence in Phytomedicine Research and Development (ACEPRD) is a recipient of $8m from the World Bank for research and training in phytomedicine. Participating multidisciplinary faculties are from pharmaceutical sciences, medical sciences, and biological and natural sciences. In its for M.Sc/PhD degrees. Since then, the University has developed new courses in 2015 admission, the program had had 9 students from Africa and 28 national students bioinformatics and genomics, clinical pharmacology, pharmaceutical microbiology, pharmaceutical biotechnology, and pharmacognosy (phytomedicine). Currently, it plans to admit 80 students, of which 16 are from West Africa.