Dear AMMnet,
Welcome to the October newsletter! We are looking forward to seeing many AMMnet members at the ASTMH meeting later this month.
Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter!
Contents:
- Special announcements
- Jobs, workshops, conferences, and opportunities
- Working group announcements
- Board and committee announcements
- Monthly seminar recap
- Celebrations
- Special announcements
Upcoming group discussion on AMMnet objectives and activities
Our January 10th seminar meeting will be a group discussion with all AMMnet members on our objectives as an organization and what activities we should engage in to achieve those objectives. Please be sure to join and contribute your ideas and perspectives!
Review guidance document
AMMnet’s values & guidance committee put together a document on Best practices in engaging with National Malaria Control Programs to build trusting relationships and strengthen capacity (1.5 pages) that we plan to put on the AMMnet website after review by AMMnet members.
Join the AMMnet Slack workspace
If you haven’t joined the AMMnet slack workspace, join here! Many announcements, including job opportunities and upcoming events, are posted first on the Slack.
AMMnet ASTMH event
With ASTMH 2022 being held in Seattle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Malaria team, together with the Malaria Modeling Community, AMMNet, and the Institute for Disease Modeling, are delighted to be hosting a half-day gathering of malaria modelers on Saturday, October 29 – the day before ASTMH begins – from 9:00am-2:00pm.
There is no registration fee to attend this meeting. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for in-person attendees at the half-day scientific session, and catering will be provided for the optional evening event. In-person attendees will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs.
To register to attend the virtual meeting, please visit https://cvent.me/qPngXy
To register to attend in person, please visit https://cvent.me/P5wY7Z
Please only register for one of the available options.
- Jobs, workshops, conferences, and opportunities
Jobs
WAMCAD
The West Africa Mathematical Modeling Capacity Development (WAMCAD): an Anglophone-francophone-lusophone partnership, a program based at the Department of Medical Microbiology of the University of Ghana Medical School, through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Disease Modeling, is pleased to announce opportunities for junior faculties, postdoctoral research fellows and PhD students. The objective of this programme is to enhance technical capacity development in malaria and NTD modeling through a multi-track training programme. Please see here for more information, including how to apply.
WAMCAD is also recruiting a highly motivated, charismatic leader to be a Project Manager and assist the Director in the management of the projects. You may find more information and instructions to apply here.
Marshall lab
John Marshall’s group at UC Berkeley is looking for a postdoc to join their research group (https://www.marshalllab.com/) to contribute to a project to characterize mosquito movement patterns, life history and population size based on kinship data. Information about the position can be found here.
Imperial College
Research Assistant/Associate position working at the interface of malaria modelling, software tool development and policy. Please do get in touch if you’re interested and would like to discuss the role. More information here.
More job opportunities available at https://iddjobs.org/
Workshops and conferences
Join the hybrid BRCCH Seminar being held October 20 on Malaria Prevention: Progress and Prospects. Find more details and register here!
Institute for Disease Modeling Fall Symposium
We would like to invite you to attend IDM’s 2022 Fall Symposium, taking place on Friday, October 28th at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA. Our program includes a mixture of scheduled sessions, lightning talks, and tool demos! Our keynote will be delivered by Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director of APHRC.
Space is limited for in-person attendance, but all are welcome to join virtually! Please register for virtual or in-person attendance here, and do not hesitate to contact the IDM team with any questions, IDMFallSymposium@gatesfoundation.org.
The Ghana 2nd Mathematical Biology and Medicine Workshop (Virtual) is November 9 -10, 2022. Sign up here!
Clinic on Dynamical Approaches to Infectious Disease Data (DAIDD)
DAIDD is a week-long modeling clinic that provides an introduction to dynamical models used in the study of infectious disease dynamics. Instruction focuses on the conceptual foundations of modeling and model formulation for infectious disease research. The clinic will be held on 11-17 December. The deadline for receipt of applications is 1 November. See here for more information.
- Working group announcements
No working group announcements this month.
- Board and committee announcements
AMMnet board
The board met on October 18.
Present: Jaline Gerardin, Emilie Pothin, Hannah Slater, Justin Millar, Manuela Runge, Ousmane Diallo, Luc Djogbenou, Shannon Stanfill
Absent: Cherlynn Dumbara, Caitlin Bever, Emmanuel Bakare, Tatiana Alonso Amor
Minutes:
- Update from Shannon on committee chair meetings
- Helping committees with scheduling meetings, drafting agenda, and taking minutes
- Sending reminder emails to presenters
- Looking at live translation and/or captioning
- Website
- Committee descriptions on website
- Data & Technical Resources: Share, discuss, and develop sources and materials related to modeling malaria, and to promote and support open and reproducible research practices.
- Francophone: Aims to make activities (meetings, workshops, courses) 100% in French in order to allow researchers who do not understand English to be at the same level as their English speaking counterparts.
- Membership: Hannah to provide.
- Seminars: Responsible for designing and organizing an interesting repertoire of content for monthly meetings; with input from across AMMnet’s membership, we invite presenters from diverse topical areas to share their knowledge in ways that improve our impact as malaria modelers.
- Social media & website: Share news and information relevant to AMMnet and the wider malaria modeling community with researchers and partners globally. The main channels to stay up to date with AMMnet are Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the website.
- Training: Emilie to resend description.
- Values & Guidance: Aims to ensure a respectful, transparent, and problem-targeted engagement between modelers, country partners, and national and global stakeholders, the committee is responsible for assembling existing reference sources of guiding principles for all parties involved and extending these with best practices as new lessons are learned.
- Workshops (special events): organizes virtual and in-person conferences and events for members to meet each other, exchange knowledge, and strengthen local capacity for modeling
- Other short-term website updates in preparation for ASTMH?
- Map and affiliation of members
- Best practices document.
- Shannon to work with committees to gather website content
- Committee descriptions on website
- Potential interest in AMMnet Lusophone, if enough members and feasible, good idea; need Mozambique representation (currently no AMMnet members in Mozambique); discuss subgroup vs committee, if bottom up request. Translate docs to Portuguese.
- Strategy session planning
- January seminar proposal:
- Group discussion on AMMnet Objectives, once consolidate discussion
- Break-out room with Board members facilitating each room, French and English
- Board will include results of discussions in consideration when drafting Terms of Reference
- General assembly for all AMMnet members to review, comment, and approve Terms of Reference
- Secretariat will draft ToR, circulate to board for approval, circulate for members to provide feedback and comments
- Use seminar time for important highlights and group feedback, then yes or no vote to adopt
- Shannon and Jaline to discuss which month to hold General Assembly.
- In-person Board meeting: attach to a conference or already scheduled gathering; AMMnet funds can support travel to meeting.
- AMMnet gathering at ASTMH Saturday event; Jaline to discuss potential AMMnet mention, we will hand out stickers and temp tattoos; more involved meeting next year in Chicago
AMMnet francophone
- Scheduling a meeting to discuss materials in French
- Developing new agenda for meeting
- Someone will present his career
Email Ousmane Diallo if you would like to be added.
Data and Technical Resources
Scheduling a group committee meeting.
Email Justin Millar if you would like to participate.
Membership
242 total members
Brief presentation on member demographics are here.
Hannah will provide Secretariat with script; add maps to website, refresh as members added.
Please forward the sign-up link to anyone you think may be interested in AMMnet:
English: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW1su4kM_jtdah_JrnGahCe8_KnTl7cQP1slp1NHqmA3o1tg/viewform
French: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesk1j6LjQgmFOdm-IpQ94rjdDW4tHj5PvyTLLnTkn6kb7roA/viewform
Seminars
- Upcoming meetings:
- November: canceled for ASTMH
- December: Shufang Zhang from Global Fund (main talk), awaiting confirmation from Modeler for spotlight speaker
- January: AMMnet objectives discussion
- January: Board Updates from Strategic Planning Meetings
- Survey to members drafted and preparing to send; 2023 schedule will be developed from survey feedback
Contact Caitlin Bever if you would like to participate or have an idea for a seminar speaker.
Training and Exchange Program
Committee meeting October 20, will discuss what is available in terms of collated materials and whether to include on website.
Contact Emilie Pothin if you would like to be added to the committee.
Values and Guidance for Effective Country Support
Circulating best practices draft (here) for comments. Members have until 10/26 to leave comments.
Contact Manuela Runge if interested in committee participation.
Website/Social Networking
LinkedIn: 142 followers
Twitter: 526 followers
Facebook: 92 “likes”
Contact Tatiana Alonso Amor if you would like to participate and are not on the mailing list yet.
Workshops
Working on two symposia
Contact Jaline Gerardin jgerardin@northwestern.edu if you would like to be added to the committee.
- Monthly seminar recap
At our October seminar, Letitia Onyango from Northwestern University shared some of the initial salient findings from her qualitative research on malaria modeling capacity. After interviewing modelers based in both LMICs and HICs, she identified a number of emerging themes around barriers that LMIC researchers commonly face, collaboration dynamics between LMIC and HIC researchers, interactions with National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs), and engagement in capacity strengthening and training initiatives. The presentation and group discussion highlighted a number of actionable insights and lessons that modelers and funders can use to reduce some of the barriers faced by LMIC researchers and improve collaborations. The next steps of the research will include additional interviews with modelers as well as with Ministry of Health or NMCP members.
Letitia is actively looking for more volunteers to interview. If you are interested in participating, she can be reached by email. Interviews can be done in English or French.
There is no seminar scheduled for November due to conflict with the ASTMH conference.
- Celebrations
Member publications, August-October 18:
Yewhalaw D, et al. An experimental hut study evaluating the impact of pyrethroid-only and PBO nets alone and in combination with pirimiphos-methyl-based IRS in Ethiopia. An experimental hut study evaluating the impact of pyrethroid-only and PBO nets alone and in combination with pirimiphos-methyl-based IRS in Ethiopia. 2022; 21:238. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04263-x
Tripura R, et al. Antimalarial chemoprophylaxis for forest goers in southeast Asia: an open-label, individually randomised controlled trial. 2022; (unknown volume):(unknown pages). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00492-3
Mebrahtom S, et al. Causes of infant deaths and patterns of associated factors in Eastern Ethiopia: Results of verbal autopsy (InterVA-4) study. 2022; 17:e0270245. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270245
Mremi IR, et al. Comparative assessment of the human and animal health surveillance systems in Tanzania: Opportunities for an integrated one health surveillance platform. 2022; (unknown volume):1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2022.2110921
Woolsey AM, et al. Correction: Incentivizing appropriate malaria case management in the private sector: a study protocol for two linked cluster randomized controlled trials to evaluate provider- and client-focused interventions in western Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. 2022; 17:61. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-022-01233-4
Hierink F, et al. Differences between gridded population data impact measures of geographic access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. 2022; 2:117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00179-4
Fehr A, et al. Doing ‘reciprocity work’: The role of fieldworkers in a mass drug administration trial in the Gambia. 2022; (unknown volume):1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2022.2125998
Diallo M, et al. Evolution of the Ace-1 and Gste2 Mutations and Their Potential Impact on the Use of Carbamate and Organophosphates in IRS for Controlling Anopheles gambiae s.l., the Major Malaria Mosquito in Senegal. 2022; 11:(unknown pages). https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11091021
Hoermann A, et al. Gene drive mosquitoes can aid malaria elimination by retarding Plasmodium sporogonic development. 2022; 8:eabo1733. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo1733
Campos M, et al. High-throughput barcoding method for the genetic surveillance of insecticide resistance and species identification in Anopheles gambiae complex malaria vectors. 2022; 12:13893. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17822-8
Ouédraogo S, et al. Impact of mobile phone intervention on intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy in Burkina Faso : A pragmatic randomized trial. 2022; 70:209-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respe.2022.07.002
Mremi IR, et al. Improving disease surveillance data analysis, interpretation, and use at the district level in Tanzania. 2022; 15:2090100. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2022.2090100
Suiyanka L, et al. Insecticide-treated net distribution in Western Kenya: impacts related to COVID-19 and health worker strikes. 2022; 14:537-539. https://doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihab051
Onyango SA, et al. Molecular characterization and genotype distribution of thioester-containing protein 1 gene in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes in western Kenya. 2022; 21:235. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04256-w
Kiemde F, et al. Phase 3 evaluation of an innovative simple molecular test for the diagnosis of malaria in different endemic and health settings in sub-Saharan Africa (DIAGMAL). 2022; 17:e0272847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272847
Djoufounna J, et al. Population knowledge, attitudes and practices towards malaria prevention in the locality of Makenene, Centre-Cameroon. 2022; 21:234. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04253-z
Watson OJ, et al. Pre-existing partner-drug resistance to artemisinin combination therapies facilitates the emergence and spread of artemisinin resistance: a consensus modelling study. 2022; 3:e701-e710. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(22)00155-0
Afolabi MO, et al. Prevalence and distribution pattern of malaria and soil-transmitted helminth co-endemicity in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000-2018: A geospatial analysis. 2022; 16:e0010321. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010321
Kala-Chouakeu NA, et al. Pyrethroid Resistance Situation across Different Eco-Epidemiological Settings in Cameroon. 2022; 27:(unknown pages). https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27196343
Afolabi MO, et al. Safety and effectiveness of delivering mass drug administration for helminths through the seasonal malaria chemoprevention platform among Senegalese children: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. 2022; 23:627. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06579-0
Stepniewska K, et al. Safety of single-dose primaquine as a Plasmodium falciparum gametocytocide: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data. 2022; 20:350. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02504-z
Ahmed A, et al. Strategies for conducting Anopheles stephensi surveys in non-endemic areas. Strategies for conducting Anopheles stephensi surveys in non-endemic areas. 2022; 236:106671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2022.106671
Cheng NI, et al. The impact of COVID-19 on implementation of mass testing, treatment and tracking of malaria in rural communities in Ghana: A qualitative study. 2022; 17:e0275976. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275976
Doumbia S, et al. The West Africa ICEMR Partnerships for Guiding Policy to Improve the Malaria Prevention and Control. 2022; 107:84-89. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.21-1330
Schaber KL, et al. What Heterogeneities in Individual-level Mobility Are Lost During Aggregation? Leveraging GPS Logger Data to Understand Fine-scale and Aggregated Patterns of Mobility. 2022. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.22-0202
Tarning, J., von Seidlein, L., Dondorp, A.M. et al. Modelling the optimal dosing schedule for artemether-lumefantrine chemoprophylaxis against malaria. BMC Res Notes 15, 313 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-022-06212-y
Tripura R, Seidlein L von, Sovannaroth S, Peto TJ, Callery JJ, Sokha M, et al. Antimalarial chemoprophylaxis for forest goers in southeast Asia: an open-label, individually randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2022;0. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00492-3
Datoo MS, Natama HM, Somé A, Bellamy D, Traoré O, Rouamba T, et al. Efficacy and immunogenicity of R21/Matrix-M vaccine against clinical malaria after 2 years’ follow-up in children in Burkina Faso: a phase 1/2b randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2022; S147330992200442X. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00442-X