Harvard Global Health Institute Welcomes 2025–2026 Visiting Research Scholar
The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) is pleased to announce its 2025–2026 Visiting Research Scholar, Dr. Bartholomew Ondigo, Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Egerton University in Kenya. The Visiting Research Scholars Program provides Harvard faculty with an opportunity to strengthen collaboration with international researchers in global health. Through a six-week, in-person residency in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the program fosters deeper academic engagement and advances joint research initiatives.
Research Collaboration
During his HGHI visiting scholarship, Dr. Ondigo is collaborating with Dr. Azza Idris, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, to investigate how the immune system protects pregnant women from malaria, particularly at the placenta. Drawing on Dr. Ondigo’s cohort of pregnant women in western Kenya and his expertise in placental malaria and field immunology, together with the Idris Lab’s advanced monoclonal antibody tools at the Ragon Institute, the team is analyzing antibody responses to VAR2CSA, the key placental malaria antigen.
Their research aims to identify antibodies that prevent infected red blood cells from binding in the placenta and to define immune correlates of protection that could guide next-generation maternal vaccines and interventions. The collaboration also seeks to adapt these laboratory methods for implementation and long-term sustainability at Egerton University following Dr. Ondigo’s return to Kenya.
About Dr. Bartholomew Ondigo
Dr. Bartholomew N. Ondigo is a Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Egerton University in Kenya. Trained in biomedical sciences (BSc, MSc, PhD), he specializes in host–pathogen interactions, mechanisms of immunity, and global health. His research focuses on malaria, schistosomiasis, and other infectious diseases, with numerous publications in leading journals and active collaborations across Kenya and internationally.
Dr. Ondigo has extensive experience teaching and mentoring undergraduate and postgraduate students, supervising master’s and PhD research, and contributing to curriculum development and capacity building in biomedical sciences.
About Dr. Azza H. Idris
Dr. Azza H. Idris, MD, PhD, is a Core Member of the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard; an attending physician in the Divisions of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health at Mass General Hospital for Children; and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. A pediatric infectious diseases specialist and malaria immunologist originally from Sudan, she leads the Idris Lab, which focuses on malaria parasite biology, host immune responses, and translational approaches to prevention, including monoclonal antibodies and vaccines.
Trained at MIT and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with residency at Emory University and subspecialty training at Children’s National Medical Center, Dr. Idris previously led the Malaria Unit at the NIH Vaccine Research Center. Her work focuses on advancing effective interventions against malaria while fostering an inclusive and collaborative research environment.
To learn more, please visit the visiting scholars program page.