The University of Chicago Center for Global Health is thrilled to be hosting Dr. Julie Makani on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at Billings Room P-117. She will be giving a public lecture on curative options for sickle cell disease in low-resource settings.
Dr. Julie Makani is Professor in the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, the main clinical, academic, and research center in Tanzania.
Tanzania has recognized sickle cell disease (SCD), as a major public health problem and it has been included as a priority condition in the national strategy for Non-Communicable Diseases in the Ministry of Health. With global partnerships, Muhimbili has developed a systematic framework for research, integrated into health, advocacy, and education. With prospective surveillance (2004 - 2016) of over 5,000 SCD patients, this is one of the largest, single-center, SCD research programs in the world. Tanzania is establishing networks at the institutional, national, regional (REDAC), African (Sickle Pan-African Network - 17 countries), and global levels. In order to develop platforms for advocacy, Tanzania has supported the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania (2010 - 2018) and the Tanzania Sickle Cell Disease Alliance (established in 2016). Scientific themes include clinical research, biomedical research (including genomics), and public health (including ethics, social/behavioral science, population health, and health policy). The aim is to use SCD as a model to establish scientific and healthcare solutions in Africa that are locally relevant and globally significant.
Julie trained in Medicine (Tanzania) and Internal Medicine (UK), and completed her PhD in clinical epidemiology of SCD (UK). She has received several national and international awards for her academic and scientific achievements. She was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow [Training (2003 - 2009), Intermediate (2012 - 2017)], Tutu Leadership Fellow (2009), and Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, University of Oxford (2003 - 2016). She received the 2011 Royal Society Pfizer Award for her work in using anemia in SCD as a model of translating genetic research into health benefit. She is a Consultant Physician in Hematology and Blood Transfusion and Principal Investigator (PI) for the Sickle Pan African Consortium (SPARCO)/SickleInAfrica. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom and Tanzania Academy of Sciences.
