Dr Said Abdallah Jongo
Dr Said A. Jongo is a Tanzanian consultant physician and senior clinical research scientist working at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Bagamoyo, Tanzania.
Dr Jongo received his doctor of medicine degree at the university of Dar-es-salaam, a master’s degree in internal medicine at the Tongji University, Shanghai, China and is now completing his PhD studies at the Swiss Tropical Institute the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Dr Jongo, has led the critical role of clinical study design and implementation for the Bagamoyo group. This work facilitated the safety and efficacy assessment of drugs and vaccines for malaria and other neglected tropical diseases. His most unique contributions include the first trial to demonstrate safety of P27A malaria vaccine candidate in Africa, the first conduct of controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) in Equatorial Guinea using PfSPZ Challenge, the first demonstration of safety of the PfSPZ Vaccine in infants and children in Tanzania, then demonstration of the safety and exploration of efficacy of Sanaria’s PfSPZ vaccine and the first study of Sanaria’s chemo-attenuated vaccine (PfSPZ-CVac) in Equatorial Guinea and the first demonstration of safety of PfSPZ Vaccine and PfSPZ challenge based CHMI in individuals living with HIV.
Dr Jongo served as the Head of the Bagamoyo Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) and the Principal Investigator for several clinical trials at IHI in Bagamoyo Tanzania as well as the lead clinical investigator in vaccine trials conducted in Malabo, Bioko island Equatorial Guinea, highlighting his strong commitment to south-south / north-south collaboration through the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project (BIMEP), a program developing a vaccine-centered approach with other malaria interventions for regional malaria elimination.
Dr Jongo is keenly interested in capacity building, believing that access to reliable and effective health interventions is critical to those affected by infectious diseases. He has spearheaded the establishment of the clinical research capacity for conduct of regulatory trials in Equatorial Guinea as well as supported the masters and PhD training of other colleagues in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea using the clinical trials platform.
His work has resulted into several papers in international, peer reviewed journals, and represent IHI in several scientific networks including, the International PfSPZ Consortium and the Helminth Elimination Platform (HELP).