U.S. Mentor
Drs. Ben & A. Jess Shenson Professor, Senior Associate Dean, Global Health, Director, Center For Innovation In Global Health, Professor Of Medicine, Stanford University; Senior Fellow At The Woods Institute
Harare, Zimbabwe
Site Institution: University of Zimbabwe
U.S. Institution: Stanford University
Research Areas: HIV/AIDS, TB, STIs, Mental Health
Site Description:
The University of Zimbabwe is the oldest university and the first to provide medical education in Zimbabwe. The first class of medical students graduated in 1963. Today, the University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (UZFMHS) has over 150 faculty, 4 pillars, 13 departments and 58 units.
The University of Zimbabwe Clinical Research Centre (UZCRC) was established in 2001 and has in 16 years executed 12 large clinical trials and several large sub-studies. The Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) is a holder of several grants from NIH, Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Unit from the mid-90s up to date. Stanford PIs have partnered with UZ through the DAIDS networks, Fogarty training grants and NIH R01s with James Hakim, Michael Chirenje, Tsungai Chipato and Peter Mason among other faculty at UZ.
On-going supported research focuses on AIDS, TB and STIs as a model slum health problem and aims to: 1) understand the natural history of the disease and determine the effectiveness of community-based interventions and 2) apply translational research approaches in identifying new diagnostics, prevention and treatments.
The infrastructure and expertise created by these studies has allowed UZ to secure large investments by PEPFAR, the US CDC and NIH to expand research into additional prevention and treatment interventions.
The UZFMHS operates within the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) and Harare Central Hospitals (HCH), which are the main teaching hospitals in the country. UZFMHS is recognized internationally as a vibrant research institution with several research groups/units/ affiliates (Clinical Research Centre, Biomedical Research and Training Institute, African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology, Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research Project, and the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research) that have contributed immensely to the health research environment in the country. The UZFMHS is a recipient of several international research grants. All these programs operate within the mandate of the UZFMHS Joint Research Ethics Committee (JREC) which is managed by UZFMHS and PGH and registered under the FWA and Office of Research and Integrity.