Dr. Nana Ama Amissah
Country (Nationality)
Ghana
Grantee Title
Research area: infectious diseases
Grantee Description
Home institution: Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana
Host institution: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Dr. Amissah will spend her fellowship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the mentorship of Michael Otto, PhD. Her research will focus on investigation intra- and interspecies competition that resulted in the dominance of a specific Staphylococcus aureus strain in Buruli ulcers. Specifically, she will focus on the factors that influence bacteriocin expression, mode of action and host cell immunity.
Dr. Amissah received a PhD in Sciences from the University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Netherlands in 2017. She gained knowledge in Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium ulcerans epidemiology in skin and soft tissue infections. She is a Research Fellow at the Noguchi emorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana. Dr. Amissah plans to study mechanisms used by staphylococci and other Gram-positive bacteria to evade the human immune system and drug therapy, focusing mainly on the strategies used to evade host antimicrobial peptides. Focusing on African staphylococcal isolates will unravel yet unrecognized staphylococcal immune evasion mechanisms.