Mozambique

Dr. Mandomando is the Senior Researcher & Coordinator of Diarrheal Disease Research Area and Laboratory Advisor in the Manhiça Health Research Center (CISM) in Mozambique. Dr. Mandomando completed his undergraduate studies in 1999 in Veterinary Medicine at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique. Shortly after graduating, he joined CISM in 2000. He completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Microbiology) in 2009 at University of Barcelona, Spain. Between 2002 and 2008, he served as Head of Laboratory at CISM and helped to establish the Biochemistry & Haematology, Immunology, Molecular Biology and Tuberculosis biosafety III laboratories. He also contributed to the establishment of a Quality Assurance System and certification of CISM’s laboratories for ISO 9001:2008.

Dr. Mandomando has worked at CISM for 19 years now, and his primary area of activities included leading the Epidemiological Studies on Measles, Salmonella, and Shigella (2001 – 2004) in the rural area of Manhiça, Mozambique. Dr. Mandomando has led a variety of applied research on infectious diseases with a focus on diarrheal disease burden and risk factor studies including the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) between 2007 and 2012, rotavirus vaccine impact evaluation (since 2015 to date) in Mozambique.

He has been extensively working on molecular characterization of enteric pathogens; and between 2010 and 2012, he devoted his research on bacterial pathogenesis by studying the structure-function of aggregative adherence fimbriae type II (AAF/II) of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli by cloning and performing site-directed mutagenesis of aafA gene and recombining the mutants in native background and score the clones for different phenotypes, at Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD & University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA, under same mentorship.

Since 2013, Dr. Mandomando has been contributing in the validation of Minimally Invasive Autopsy (MIA) and currently oversees the CHAMPS site in Manhiça, Mozambique and MITS component for Countrywide Mortality Surveillance for Action (COMSA) in Quelimane, Mozambique. From 2013 to 2016, he worked as Deputy Director for Science at CISM and helped to establish the Scientific Directorate at CISM.

Rosauro Varo completed his undergraduate at the University of Córdoba (Spain), where he also qualified as a pediatrician in 2011. He received a diploma in International cooperation and Humanitarian aid at the National university of Education over a distance, Madrid, Spain (2009); a MSc in Tropical pediatrics at the Liverpoll School of Tropical Medicine (2012 ); a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene at the Royal College of Physicians of London (2014); and obtained his Ph.D. in 2020 at the University of Barcelona. He has published over 60 articles in peer-reviewed international journals.

During his career as a pediatrician, with special interest in infectious disease epidemiology and public health, he has combined clinical work with biomedical research in LMICs. He has been focused in the identification of biomarkers, differential diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated and severe malaria in children. Then, he has been part of different clinical of new therapeutics tools for malaria in the last years. Furthermore, he has been involved in international collaborations to design, implement and evaluate different clinical and epidemiological studies in Southern Mozambique, including biomarkers characterization in malarial disease.

In addition, he has participated in developing and implementing a minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS) methodology to understand better the underlying pathophysiology and mechanisms leading to death in resource-constrained settings. He has also been interested in technological innovation for global health and has participated in different studies to validate and develop diagnostic and prognosis devices for pediatric infectious diseases.