The Hannah Akuffo Group at Karolinska Institute in Sweden – Hannah is a nominee for the African-Swedish Woman of the Year

UPDATE: PROFESSOR AKUFFO WON!

The research area of my group is directed at a closer understanding of parasites in influencing the human host immune response. Specifically we have studied the participation of Natural Killer (NK) cells in Leishmania infection, the pathogenesis of ulcer formation during cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and the contribution of helminth infection in immunity to tuberculosis.

In 2006 I was appointed Adjunct Professor at MTC. For 80% of my time, I am the Head of the Division for University Support and National Research Development (UNI), at the Department of Research (SAREC), of the Swedish International Development cooperation Agency, Sida. The division is responsible for research, research training and other research capacity strengthening support to currently 12 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, namely Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Laos, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. In addition I represent Sweden on two boards (EMVI, European Malaria Vaccine Initiative & EDCTP, European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership) that work for developing products and clinical testing of interventions against malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. In my own right a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Tropical Disease Research (TDR) program based within WHO in Geneva.

See Hannah’s groups’ publications and projects.