Ahmed Ouattara, PhD, MSc, PharmD, and Jose Lemme, PhD, are recognized as part of the prestigious National Institutes of Health Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation program.
Photo: Ahmed Ouattara (left) and Jose Lemme
The Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) is thrilled to announce that two of its outstanding researchers, Ahmed Ouattara, PhD, MSc, PharmD, assistant professor, and Jose Lemme, PhD, assistant professor, have been recognized as part of the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program.
This recognition highlights CVD’s continued commitment to advancing diversity, inclusion, and excellence in biomedical research.
The NIH FIRST program, now in its third round, is designed to support the recruitment of diverse cohorts of early-stage research faculty while fostering a culture of inclusive excellence in the biomedical research community. This highly competitive program provides substantial funding over a five-year period, empowering institutions like CVD to lead in creating sustainable environments that nurture diverse talent and promote collaborative scientific breakthroughs.
Ouattara’s research interests include molecular epidemiology, population genetics, and vaccine design. His work focuses on using new approaches to prioritize malaria vaccine antigens candidates, assessing the strain-specific efficacy of malaria vaccines, and surveillance of vaccine-resistant malaria.
Lemme’s research interest focuses on understanding how the gut’s defenses work in infants during health, illness, vaccination, and breastfeeding. In his studies, he uses human intestinal organoids, also known as “mini-guts,” grown from pediatric tissue. This approach helps him explore how the immune system adapts to develop better treatments for infants.