Dear AMMnet,
New this month, we have added meeting notes from our monthly AMMnet board meeting under #4, Board and committee announcements.
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
Poll for upcoming virtual workshops
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_piiBXKmODMiLub2gkObxEeAEA2k-3ZXHyOIr2IRZeivMMA/viewform
Apply to join the AMMnet board
AMMnet’s governing board is currently composed of the 8 committee chairs. We are looking for additional board members to join us and provide additional perspectives:
WHAT
- Looking for 2-3 new members: no need to chair a committee
- 1 hour meeting per month, unpaid
- Junior members welcome
- Members from malaria-endemic countries especially welcome
WHY
- Board members help decide what activities AMMnet takes on and govern the organization
- Another opportunity to get to know and work with other members of AMMnet
- Add it to your CV as organizational and leadership experience
HOW
- Please send one paragraph to info@ammnet.org describing why you are interested
- New board members will be randomly chosen from responses
- Deadline is September 12, ahead of Sept 20 board meeting
Going to PAMCA?
AMMnet will be holding an informal, pre-evening social event at PAMCA this year on 28th September, before the final evening party. To help us get an estimate for number of attendees, if you think you may stop by, please indicate on the form below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScPbXJojNF0yF7t5ff0UzRZDtwWMkqn6ffKCZotNUIyu-6f-Q/viewform
If you will not be attending, there is no need to click the form.
Modeling capacity study
The Northwestern University Malaria Modeling team is conducting a study to identify strategies to enable local modelers to have deeper involvement in modeling activities to support National Malaria Control Program priorities. We are seeking malaria researchers, modelers, aspiring modelers, epidemiologists, and statisticians to participate in interviews. The findings from these interviews will enable the research team and its collaborators to identify the priorities of modelers and researchers in malaria-endemic countries who may be interested in modeling training and scientific development. If you are interested in participating in this study, or know someone who is interested, please visit this link to review the full study overview and provide your consent to participate.
- Jobs, workshops, conferences, and opportunities
Jobs
AMMnet is looking for a Program Administrator to support our activities! This position will be based with the AMMnet secretariat at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA. For more information, see aqui and search for job ID 45246, or send your CV and cover letter to Jaline Gerardin.
PhD student position in Mathematical modelling for malaria elimination in Southern Africa available at University of Cape Town. This closes Sept 5th so apply soon!
http://www.masha.uct.ac.za/masha/training/mmala
Northwestern University is looking for 2 postdocs: one in within-host modeling and one in applied modeling in francophone countries. Please apply at malariamodeling@northwestern.edu with CV and cover letter, or for more information.
More job opportunities available at https://iddjobs.org/
AMMnet at PAMCA
AMMnet will be holding an informal, pre-evening social event at PAMCA this year on 28th September, before the final evening party. Please stop by to say hello and collect an AMMnet sticker!
Pre-ASTMH modeling meeting
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. If you are planning to attend ASTMH in person, we hope you will consider coming to town a day early to join the gathering in person; however, we are also enabling virtual participation so we can connect with malaria modelers around the world. For those joining in person, we will be gathering at the Hyatt Olive 8 hotel in downtown Seattle, located just two blocks from the ASTMH conference site.
Having not been able to connect in person for many years now, we’re planning for this to be a relatively informal gathering aimed at helping us reconnect. To that end, there are no formal topics or specific sessions planned – rather, we’ll be programming short talks (in-person and virtual) from our attendees. So, whether joining us in Seattle or online, all attendees are invited to submit a short (100 word max) abstract – we will program the meeting using abstracts selected from these submissions. Note that we will not be featuring a poster session.
For those who able to attend in person, there will also be an optional evening dining event at a location to be determined. During the registration process, please indicate if you would also be interested in attending this event.
There is no registration fee to attend this meeting. Breakfast and lunch will provided for in-person attendees at the half-day scientific session, and catering will 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. During the registration process, you will have the ability to submit a short abstract should you wish.
- Working group announcements
The IPTi/PMC working group is re-starting and will be meeting virtually on Tuesday 13th September. Contact Manuela Runge if interested.
AMMnet member Maciek Boni is looking to organize a working group around drug resistance. Get in touch if you are interested.
- Board and committee announcements
AMMnet board
The board met on 16th August.
Present: Tatiana Alonso Amor, Caitlin Bever, Ousmane Diallo, Jaline Gerardin, Justin Millar, Emilie Pothin, Manuela Runge
Absent: Hannah Slater
Topics of discussion:
- Committee updates (see below)
- Engaging AMMnet members
- Seminars will briefly highlight activities of committees so members can get a feel for what is happening
- In a few months, ask for feedback from AMMnet on how to increase engagement (via seminar and newsletter)
- ASTMH conference
- Use newsletter to highlight posters and talks by AMMnet members at ASTMH
- Make AMMnet logo available to members who would like to add it to their materials
- Arrange an informal social activity to take place during ASTMH
- Committees: have activity goals to complete by ASTMH so there’s materials to point people toward
- Update on hiring of Program Administrator Sr: 8 interviewed first round, 3 second round
- Update on applications for board: 8 applications received so far
- Planning a virtual governance and strategy board meeting for 2022. Draft topics:
- Governance structure
- Advisory board
- Strategic objectives and actions to achieve them
- How are things going, what has the network become in the last months, does it still align with our vision?
- What’s the role of AMMnet in the communities that are around? Where do we fit in the different organizations and initiatives that are taking place? If the landscape is changing with the new consortia, have the gaps changed as well, and where do we fit in the new landscape?
- Long-term vision
AMMnet francophone
Francophone committee is looking into live translation of AMMnet seminars from English to French.
Currently scheduling next meeting. Email Ousmane Diallo if you would like to be added.
Data and Technical Resources
Data committee is currently scheduling their next meeting. Email Justin Millar if you would like to participate.
Membership
Please forward the sign-up link to anyone you think may be interested in AMMnet:
Seminários
Seminar committee is soliciting volunteers among new members for research introduction presentations and collecting new input from members about topics they’d like to see as we plan for the next series of openings. Contact Caitlin Bever caitlin.bever@gatesfoundation.org if you would like to participate or have an idea for a seminar speaker.
Training and Exchange Program
The Committee would like ideas from AMMnet members about trainings you would like to be arranged in the network:
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1fc9Sha5E2KIn172vro6mLOcPF_6oDvQ_lvK9IL6ui6I/edit?usp=sharing
Next meeting: 24th August. Email Emilie Pothin if you would like to be added.
Values and Guidance for Effective Country Support
Values committee is planning qualitative surveys/interviews on country modeling experience. Next meeting will be 30th August. Contact Manuela Runge if interested.
Website/Social Networking
The committee is reactivating the Facebook AMMnet page and planning new additions to the website. Next meeting will be beginning September or beginning October. Please contact Tatiana if you would like to participate and are not on the mailing list yet.
Workshops
The workshops committee is organizing a social event at PAMCA and planning for virtual workshops in the next months. Next meeting will be 18 August. Contact Jaline Gerardin if you would like to be added.
- Monthly seminar recap
Our August seminar was a meet-and-greet small group discussion event among AMMnet members.
At our next seminar on September 6, 2022, Emma Fairbanks from Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute will present on modeling new tools. The seminar will take place as usual via Zoom aqui at 3pm UTC.
- Celebrations
Member publications, 17 July – 16 August 2022
- Niyukuri D, Sinzinkayo D, Troth EV, Oduma CO, Barengayabo M, et al. (2022) Performance of highly sensitive and conventional rapid diagnostic tests for clinical and subclinical Plasmodium falciparum infections, and hrp2/3 deletion status in Burundi. PLOS Global Public Health 2(7): e0000828. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000828
- Abate, A., Bouyssou, I., Mabilotte, S. et al. Vivax malaria in Duffy-negative patients shows invariably low asexual parasitaemia: implication towards malaria control in Ethiopia. Malar J 21, 230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04250-2
- Lingani, M., Zango, S.H., Valéa, I. et al. Prevalence and risk factors of malaria among first antenatal care attendees in rural Burkina Faso. Trop Med Health 50, 49 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-022-00442-3
- Onyango, S.A., Ochwedo, K.O., Machani, M.G. et al. Molecular characterization and genotype distribution of thioester-containing protein 1 gene in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes in western Kenya. Malar J 21, 235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04256-w
Not seeing your publication? Please let us know and we will post it in the next newsletter!