Professor Martin Antonio

Unit Molecular Biologist & Principal Investigator
Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia
Contact

Prof Antonio is Unit Molecular Biologist & Principal Investigator at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Fajara, The Gambia. He serves as the Director, the WHO collaborating Centre for New Vaccines Surveillance and Heads the WHO Regional Reference Laboratory for Invasive Bacterial Diseases (IBD) for West and Central Africa. Martin also holds the position of Honorary Professor at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London, UK) and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London, UK). Prof Antonio's research is focused on the leverage of new molecular technologies in diagnosis of tropical infections, investigation of microbial transmission and clinical trials. Martin's group has led and participated in a growing number of large-scale international research projects, investigating the aetiology of pneumonia, diarrhoea, serving as the WHO reference laboratory for pneumococcal disease and establishing large disease surveillance platforms for bacterial infections across Africa. In February 2016, Prof Antonio's team was called upon by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assist with the recent outbreak of meningitis in Ghana and his team helped the Ghanaian government and public health officers to identify the causative pathogens by applying the molecular tools available through the MRCG's laboratories. He also participates in consultations and meetings with member states, WHO, UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Gavi Alliance and other partners.