Affiliateship: 2020-2024
Cohort 5
Country (Nationality)
Kenya
Discipline
Medical & Health Sciences
Bio
Dr Amin Hassan is a postdoctoral research scientist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. He holds an M.Sc. in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (University of London) and a PhD from the faculty of Medicine (University of Amsterdam). Dr Hassan has more than 10 years of research experience on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. His research interests revolve around understanding drivers of HIV transmission and antiretroviral treatment responses. Specifically, Dr Hassan is interested in applying phylogenetic tools to understand origin, introduction and spread of HIV infection at the population level with an aim of informing public health interventions. He is also keen in delineating virus/host interactions at the molecular level with the aim of informing the design of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine candidates. Dr Hassan is also interested in understanding pathways conferring reduced susceptibility to antiretroviral therapy with the aim of informing optimal treatment regimen.
His projects involve collaborations with colleagues from various institutions including the department of systems virology at Lund University (Sweden), the Antiviral Unit at Public Health England (UK) and the HIV Pathogenesis Programme at University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). His current projects are supported with a training fellowship from the Wellcome Trust, an award from IAVI’s Vaccine Immunology Science and Technology for Africa (VISTA) program, a Path-to-independence award from the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE) and a preparatory fellowship from the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF). Dr Hassan is motivated to contribute knowledge towards informing interventions aimed at achieving HIV epidemic control in Africa.