Would you like to work on the next critical global health problem? Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are used by hundreds of millions of people each year to treat malaria. But, reports of artemisinin-resistant genotypes in Aug 2020 (Rwanda) and Nov 2021 (Uganda) have put the efficacy of ACTs at serious risk. These are inexpensive, readily available treatments across all of Africa, with no second option available should they begin to fail in Africa in the coming year.

A recent update (Aug 2023) in the NEJM shows that things are getting worse: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2211803 .

We are part of several consortia and international collaborations developing the preparations and responses to artemisinin-resistance in Africa and we are looking for new team members to contribute — probably for the remainder of the decade.

The Boni Lab in the Department of Biology at Temple University is recruiting highly-motivated individuals for 2 or 3 open postdoctoral positions. Positions will be available starting January 2 2024. Similar positions at the computational scientist level will be posted shortly.

Our lab is based at the Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (IGEM) in Temple University's Biology Department, in Philadelphia. Our malaria modeling work is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. We are part of the global Applied Malaria Modeling Network (AMMNet), and we collaborate routinely with partners at Oxford, Imperial College, and the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute (e.g. see https://mol.ax/pdf/watson22.pdf). We provide malaria advice and analytics to WHO regularly, and we have continuously running partnerships with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre and the national malaria programs of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. We also work with MMV and UNITAID and larger consortium projects on planning and evaluating strategies for Africa-wide artemisinin-resistance response.

Successful candidates for these posts will know how to:

· Lead research in malaria individual-based modeling focused on drug-resistance control policies
· Use/learn geospatial software like arcGIS to assemble malaria prevalence/incidence data
· Potentially lead software development in C++ for large complex projects
· Understand the needs and requirements of national malaria control programs in malaria-endemic countries

Candidates are required to have a Ph.D. in a relevant field (such as computer science or computational epidemiology) and a strong interest in malaria research. Familiarity with python and MATLAB is preferred. Some experience in C++ is required, depending on the project role that you will prefer to slot yourself into.

Candidates are encouraged to apply if they are interested in developing applied epidemiological skills through the use of computation, simulation, and new software development, and if they have a keen interest in emergency-level global health response for one of the developing world's most pressing current health problems.

Applicants should submit a cover letter (by email, to mboni@temple.edu) describing their research experience and how these experiences relate to the position, a CV, and contact information for two references. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the positions are filled (probably by mid-2024).

Links to relevant lab research interests are shown below

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.22283369v1
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39914-3
https://twitter.com/maciekboni/status/1687289671724777472
https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0002200
http://mol.ax/pdf/boni22.pdf

Official job posting is at https://cst.temple.edu/department-biology/about-department/job-openings .