Mahamoud Sama Cherif joined IDDO in December 2017 as an EDCTP/TDR Clinical Research Fellow. He is working on the Ebola data platform, focusing on an analysis of the likelihood of unfavourable outcomes in EVD patients in relation to any characteristics of the patient and any disease-specific or other conditions (such as comorbidities or pregnancy) in order to introduce recommendations for the efficient management of future EVD outbreaks. Following the completion of his fellowship, Cherif now pursues research and teaching as the Clinical Research Manager of the Partnership for Clinical Research in Guinea.

Cherif is a research assistant in the Department of Medicine at the University Gamal Abdel Nasser (GAN) in Conakry. Established as a public body in 1960, the Department of Medicine is devoted to training medical students and conducting research on various diseases including poverty-related diseases in Guinea. Previously, Cherif worked as an assistant professor at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, for over four years. As a result, he gained experience and skills in basic and translational research and published several papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Cherif holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from the School of Biomedical Sciences at Nagasaki University and has paediatrics and MD degrees from the Faculty of Medicine Pharmacy Odonto-Stomatology (FMPOS) at GAN. Cherif’s career goal is to become a clinical researcher able to test new medications (drugs or vaccines), procedures, devices, and/or surveys, in order to look for better and more efficient ways to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life infectious disease patients.