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Mozambique: Raquel Matavele Chissumba awarded OWSD Early Career Fellowship
1:46 CAT | 07 Oct 2020
File photo: National Institute of Health of Mozambique
Mozambican biologist and researcher at the National Institute of Health (INS), Raquel Matavele Chissumba, has been awarded an Early Career Fellowship, within the scope of the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) of UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
OWSD is a UNESCO unit, the first international forum to unite eminent women scientists from the developing and developed worlds with the objective of strengthening their role in the development process and promoting their representation in scientific and technological leadership.
“Dr. Matavele Chissumba is assessing the potential of the moringa tree, Moringa oleifera, to control the exacerbated inflammatory response that occurs in severe cases of Covid-19,” the OWSD statement reads. “The tropical immune system is different than the western immune system predominantly described in the literature. Thus, limited information is available regarding the processes by which SARS-CoV-2 causes disease in the African context,” it continues.
“Dr. Matavele Chissumba’s research will identify potential biomarkers of Covid-19 progression and treatment efficacy that will inform the development of therapeutic and preventive protocols specifically oriented to African populations. It will identify cost-effective approaches for management of patients with Covid-19, including the use of moringa or other bio-therapeutics abundant and easily applicable in Mozambican/African settings. It will also contribute to new methods for disease monitoring,” the same source adds.
“With the Early Career Fellowship funding, Dr. Matavele Chissumba will be able to hire two full-time research assistants for the duration of the project, as well as to purchase consumables and lab equipment and cover the costs of field work.”
The 2020 Early Career fellows were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates based on the strength of their research proposals and their proven scientific excellence as well as leadership skills.
This year, 23 women scientists were awarded, coming from 15 countries across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, including Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Togo and Zambia for the first time in the three years of the fellowship.
They will each receive up to US$50,000 for research projects at their home institutes, and to build up research groups that will attract international visitors. Funding for the fellowship is provided by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Scientists and researchers from around 60 countries applied for the 2020 Early Career Fellowships.
Raquel Matavele Chissumba is a Biomedical Scientist and Head of Programme of the Endemic Diseases of Great Sanitary Impact at the National health Institute (INS).
She holds a degree in Biological Sciences from Eduardo Mondlane University, a Master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Institute in Brazil, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
The OWSD Early Career Fellowship is a prestigious award of up to US$50,000 offered to women who have completed their PhDs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and are employed at an academic or scientific research institute in one of the listed Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs). The OWSD Early Career fellows are supported to establish environments at their institutions where they can maintain an international standard of research and attract scholars from all over the world to collaborate.
Source: National Institute of Health of Mozambique / Org. for Women in Science for the Developing World
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