Dora Ngum Shu Mbanya is Professor of Haematology at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (FMBS), University of Yaoundé I (UYI), and the General Manager of the National Blood Transfusion Service in Cameroon. She is holder of an MD in General Medicine (Cameroon); PhD in Medicine/Haematology (Newcastle upon Tyne, England) and a “Dîplome Universitaire” in Transfusion Medicine (Université d’Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). She is Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK and the current President of the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion. She is member to several scientific and professional bodies locally and internationally, and has served as Vice Dean in charge of Studies and Student Affairs in the FMBS, UYI, and Dean of Medicine at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon.

The thrust of Professor Mbanya’s research has been in blood transfusion medicine (clinical use of blood; transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) like hepatitis B, C, Syphilis, and HIV. Her team, with external collaborators identified a new subgenotype of hepatitis B virus (A3), hepatitis delta and C strains. They identified the horizontal transmission of the group N, HIV-1 and an HIV-2 intergroup recombinant strain. They showed primary drug resistance in drug-naïve HIV-infected people, and demonstrated wide HIV-1 genetic diversity in Cameroon. These findings have contributed in the production of diagnostics assays for detecting diverse HIV strains in clinical specimens.

She also has interest in general haemostasis; her PhD established a reliable in vitro model for examining the role of endothelial cells in hypercoagulability. She created the haemophilia treatment centre in Yaoundé, revolutionising haemophilia care in Cameroon.

These research activities have led to 4 book chapters and 142 peer-reviewed journal publications, and to many international recognitions (Member of WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Blood Transfusion, and of several Working Parties of the International Society for Blood Transfusion) among many other nominations.