Position: Scientific Director, Med Biotech Laboratories

 

Contact: Med Biotech Laboratories
Muyenga Tank Hill By-pass,
Lugwana Close, Plot 3438
P.O. Box 9364, Kampala,
Uganda
Tel: +256 312 266 153
Email: oloboj[at]yahoo.co.uk

Research Interests
Prof J. Olobo is a veterinarian by basic training with a speciality in Immunology of infectious diseases notably Leishmaniasis and tuberculosis. After obtaining the B.Vet Med from Nairobi University he proceeded for an MSc degree in Parasitology through ICIPE and a PhD degree in immunology through ILRI (then ILRAD), Nairobi Kenya. While at the laboratory of Prof. Graham Mitchell at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, he unequivocally demonstrated that antibodies to Leishmania had no protective role during infection. At the Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya, where he rose to the position of Director Prof Olobo established an immunology laboratory and the non human primate model for studying the immune responses during infection with Leishmania organisms. The model being phylogenetically close to humans and the disease also resembles that in humans. The model therefore continues to be useful for dissecting the immune responses during infection and for preclinical testing of vaccines and drugs against the disease complex. As a Senior Scientist and Deputy Director, at Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Prof Olobo was involved in a number of projects notably vaccine development against TB in collaboration with several partners including that of Prof Peter Andersen, at the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen. Prof Olobo has trained a number of MSC and PhD students in eastern Africa.

He has also won several grants and awards from example WHO/TDR, EU, Rockefeller foundation, DNDi etc. He is on the editorial board of African Health Sciences Journal and an occasional reviewer of African Journal of Biotechnology. He is currently involved in a number of clinical trials; examining the efficacy of candidate drugs against visceral leishmaniasis, TB and HIV coinfected patients and malaria vaccine studies involving “site preparation, infrastructure development and capacity building”. Prof Olobo is also Scientific Director of MBL, a not-for-profit Biomedical Research Institute in Uganda. He is also the head of LEAP (Leishmania East Africa Platform) in Uganda, an initiative that comprises a group of scientists and Institutions in East Africa working on developing clinical trial capacity to bring new treatments to visceral leishmaniasis.

Major Projects

Ongoing

1. Vaccine studies in Uganda: Site preparation, infrastructure development, and capacity building for clinical trials - World Bank / G.O.U. 2008

2. Efficacy of anti-leishmanial drugs. In collaboration with Makerere University- DNDi. Country PI
3. Evaluation of impact of early initiation of HAART in TB/HIV co infected patients- WHO/TDR grant-2004-present. Laboratory coordinator

Completed

4. Evaluation of dot blot assay for screening drug resistance in TB. IAEA Collaborative Project, 2003-2005. Country PI
5. Impact of malaria on agriculture. 2004-2005. SIMA Collaborative Grant. Investigator

Selected peer-reviewed Publications