Research visit to Uganda paving the way for increased collaboration

The scientific fields of Pharmacometrics and Global health are increasingly integrated, and at Uppsala University's research environment for Pharmacometrics, numerous PhD students currently work with a focus on poverty-related diseases. The data that provide the basis of their projects are mainly gathered in the southern parts of Africa, and in October, researchers Thomas Dorlo and Elin Svensson traveled to Uganda with six PhD students to visit some of the premises that conduct the clinical studies – an exchange made possible by the Faculty of Pharmacy Strategic Investments for Competence Development.

“We visited both the capital Kampala and the much smaller city of Gulu, near the border to South Sudan. To experience the operations at care units, laboratories and research environments was truly an eye-opener. Partly to see their amazing efforts to tend to both caretakers and clinical studies, but also the opportunity to meet the patients we actually work for,” says Yu-Jou Lin, PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy.

The program included a longer stay at Makerere University’s Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala. The Institute – offering one of the African continent's premier facilities for clinical studies – is currently establishing an environment for Pharmacometrics research. The University of Gulu is building up capacity in the area of pharmaceutical sciences, and the Swedish guests received an onsite introduction to the development of a PhD student program and the new laboratory facilities.

“The work in Gulu is led by a researcher who participated a few years ago at our Uppsala Pharmacometrics Summer School that we organize annually at Uppsala University, which turned out a both enjoyable and valuable reunion. The progress at these universities is characterized by impressive energy, which add extra incentives to further increase the collaboration between our groups,” says Thomas Dorlo, Professor of Pharmacometrics.

Substantial space was also provided for the PhD students to present their research and exchange experiences in order to identify areas for potential collaborations. An arrangement that proved successful, and already in early November, two PhD students from Uganda will join the team in Uppsala to work collaboratively on projects focusing on improved treatment regimens for tuberculosis meningitis and the effect of pharmacogenetics on pharmacokinetics and adverse drug reactions of various tuberculosis drugs.

“They encouraged discussions and showed genuine interest in our research in Uppsala. In addition to the knowledge exchange, it was valuable to see how hard PhD students in Uganda have to work as they often also have to pay themselves for research materials, which means that many have an extra job on the side. It gives an understanding of how privileged PhD students are in Sweden, but also the great spirit that characterize Ugandan junior researchers,” states Andrés Mazariegos Herrera, PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy.

Another highly appreciated experience was the guided tour through the African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, where the Swedish PhD students visited the installation of supercomputers to take the next step in machine learning. Perhaps even more exotic was the drive from Kampala to Gulu which, in the absence of highways, went through Uganda's famous Murchison Falls National Park including close encounters with quite a few of The Big Five.

“What we all have brought back with us to Uppsala is above all an increased understanding of the work required to produce the data that is the foundation of our research, new contacts for our junior researchers and, perhaps most importantly, that we have now established the basis for an extended and mutually valuable collaboration with our Ugandan colleagues at the Infectious Diseases Institute and Gulu University,” says Elin Svensson, Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Department of Pharmacy