Bio

Ally Olotu is KEMRI-Wellcome Trust affiliate and works with Ifakara Health Institute in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. He has an MD degree from the University of Dar es salaam and DPhil in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, UK. He currently heads the Department of Interventions and Clinical Trials at Ifakara Health Institute, and he is an adjunct faculty at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology teaching the master’s course in Public Health Research. In 2017, he was awarded an MRC African Research Leadership fellowship to work on a second-generation malaria vaccine candidate RH5 administered using viral vectors in Tanzanian children and infants in collaboration with Prof Simon Draper from the University of Oxford. Ally is currently an EDCTP senior fellow, working to establish blood-stage controlled human malaria infection and in-vivo transmission models for the evaluation blood-stage and transmission blocking vaccines respectively. He is also collaborating with Prof Philip Bejon and Mainga Hamaluba from KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program, Prof Claudia Daubenberger from the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute.

See more

Current Work

His interest is in the epidemiology of malaria and clinical trials evaluating the public health interventions against malaria and other infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). His work includes phase I, II and III evaluations of pre-erythrocytic, second generation blood-stage and transmission blocking vaccines. He is also interested in understanding the vaccine correlates of immune protection and factors that could influence the vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy. He has led malaria vaccines trials in multiple African countries including Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania. His scientific contribution includes the understanding of safety, long term efficacy and immunogenicity of the candidate malaria vaccine, RTS,S in young African children.

See more

Recent publications

Blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate RH5.1/Matrix-M in healthy Tanzanian adults and children; an open-label, non-randomised, first-in-human, single-centre, phase 1b trial.
Silk, S. E., Kalinga, W. F., Salkeld, J., Mtaka, I. M., Ahmed, S., Milando, F., Diouf, A., Bundi, C. K., Balige, N., Hassan, O., Mkindi, C. G., Rwezaula, S., Athumani, T., Mswata, S., Lilolime, N. S., Simon, B., Msami, H., Mohamed, M., David, D. M., Mohammed, L., Nyaulingo, G., Mwalimu, B., Juma, O., Mwamlima, T. G., Sasamalo, I. A., Mkumbange, R. P., Kamage, J. J., Barrett, J. R., King, L. D. W., Hou, M. M., Pulido, D., Carnrot, C., Lawrie, A. M., Cowan, R. E., Nugent, F. L., Roberts, R., Cho, J. S., Long, C. A., Nielsen, C. M., Miura, K., Draper, S. J., Olotu, A. I., Minassian, A. M.
Lancet Infect Dis, (2024). S1473-3099:00312-8

Fourth Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) meeting - CHIMs in endemic countries, May 22-23, 2023.
Kapulu, M., Manda-Taylor, L., Balasingam, S., Means, G., Ayiro Malungu, M., Bejon, P., Chi, P. C., Chiu, C., Church, E. C., Correa-Oliveira, R., Day, N., Durbin, A., Egesa, M., Emerson, C., Jambo, K., Mathur, R., Metzger, W., Mumba, N., Nazziwa, W., Olotu, A., Rodgers, J., Sinyiza, F., Talaat, K., Kamerling, I., Weller, C., Baay, M., Neels, P.
Biologicals, (2024). 85:101747

Safety and efficacy of malaria vaccine candidate R21/Matrix-M in African children: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, phase 3 trial.
Datoo, M. S., Dicko, A., Tinto, H., Ou�draogo, J. B., Hamaluba, M., Olotu, A., Beaumont, E., Ramos Lopez, F., Natama, H. M., Weston, S., Chemba, M., Compaore, Y. D., Issiaka, D., Salou, D., Some, A. M., Omenda, S., Lawrie, A., Bejon, P., Rao, H., Chandramohan, D., Roberts, R., Bharati, S., Stockdale, L., Gairola, S., Greenwood, B. M., Ewer, K. J., Bradley, J., Kulkarni, P. S., Shaligram, U., Hill, A. V. S.
Lancet, (2024). 403:533-544

Fourth Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) meeting, CHIM regulatory issues, May 24, 2023.
Cavaleri, M., Kaslow, D., Boateng, E., Chen, W. H., Chiu, C., Choy, R. K. M., Correa-Oliveira, R., Durbin, A., Egesa, M., Gibani, M., Kapulu, M., Katindi, M., Olotu, A., Pongsuwan, P., Simuyandi, M., Speder, B., Talaat, K. R., Weller, C., Wills, B., Baay, M., Balasingam, S., Olesen, O. F., Neels, P.
Biologicals, (2024). 85:101745

Sporozoite immunization: Innovative Translational Science to Support the Fight against malaria.
Richie, T. L., Church, L. W. P., Murshedkar, T., Billingsley, P. F., James, E. R., Chen, M. C., Abebe, Y., Natasha, Kc, Chakravarty, S., Dolberg, D., Healy, S. A., Diawara, H., Sissoko, M. S., Sagara, I., Cook, D. M., Epstein, J. E., Mordm?ller, B., Kapulu, M., Kreidenweiss, A., Franke-Fayard, B., Agnandji, S. T., L?pez Mikue, M. A., McCall, M. B. B., Steinhardt, L., Oneko, M., Olotu, A., Vaughan, A. M., Kublin, J. G., Murphy, S. C., Jongo, S., Tanner, M., Sirima, S. B., Laurens, M. B., Daubenberger, C., Silva, J. C., Lyke, K. E., Janse, C. J., Roestenberg, M., Sauerwein, R. W., Abdulla, S., Dicko, A., Kappe, S. H. I., Sim, B. K. L., Duffy, P. E., Kremsner, P. G., Hoffman, S. L.
Expert Rev Vaccines, (2023). 22:964-1007