Affiliateship: 2019-2023
Cohort 4
Country (Nationality)
Kenya
Discipline
Medical & Health Sciences
Bio
Gitaka is a Kenyan Physician-Scientist trained at the University of Nairobi, a holder of Masters of Tropical Medicine and PhD in Medical Science from Nagasaki University, Japan.
His experience spans clinical practice and trials, molecular biology and epidemiology of malaria, field-based research, lecturing and implementation science.
Currently, he is a Principal Investigator in 8 studies in the areas of maternal and newborn health (MNH) and infectious diseases. Specifically, his current work is on the development of better technologies to diagnose subclinical infections that are known to contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes and antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
He is also leading the Collaborative Newborn Support project for the last 3 years which aims to enhance access and quality of newborn care using telehealth and health systems strengthening. His teams’ projects are funded by among others, African Academy of Sciences (Grand Challenges Africa), Terumo Foundation for Life Sciences and Arts, Japan, USAID, DFID- UK, Grand Challenges Canada, Newton-Utafiti Fund and the National Research Fund, Kenya.
Over the years, he has established strong collaborations across the world and is published in reputable peer-reviewed journals.