S10 E5: From lab to people - the translational research journey

Connecting Citizens to Science

In this celebratory episode to close out 2022, we have brought together previous co-hosts and guests to reflect on what we have learned over the past year. We examine our learning along the translational research pathway.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have a translational research trajectory; that means there is a continuum of science from basic research and labs to embedding change for communities and within sustainable policies and practices. LSTM works with a range of partners globally along this continuum, and in this episode, we will be hearing from some of those that have worked with LSTM and have different positions within programmes and PhDs. Our multidisciplinary guests share their understanding of community engagement and how they ensure that community voice is included in research design, analysis and outcomes throughout the research pathway.

This episode features:

Beatrice Egid – MRC PhD Student, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

In 2017, Beatrice completed a BA in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford. She began an MSc in Tropical Disease Biology at LSTM in September 2018, during which she undertook a research project determining the level of insecticide resistance in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Accra, Ghana, and the metabolic mechanisms driving it. Beatrice started the MRC Doctoral Training Programme at LSTM, with an integrated MRes at Lancaster University in Global Health: Quantitative and Translational Skills, in 2019.

Beatrice is undertaking her PhD as part of the ARISE project. Within ARISE, Beatrice's project focuses on vector-borne diseases in waste-picking communities in Vijayawada, India. She will be employing a mixed-methods approach, combining aspects of entomology and policy analysis alongside qualitative and participatory methods.

Beatrice has a strong interest in health policy and co-production research approaches. She conducted a desk-based policy project exploring the intersection between vector-borne diseases and city resilience in the context of the Resilient Cities Network (RCN), and has published two papers from her MRes qualitative research project investigating power dynamics in participatory research.

Dr. Oluwatosin Adekeye - Assistant Director of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry Ahmadu Bello University Hospital Zaria Kaduna

A social scientist with varied experience in both clinical and research aspects of health among communities in Northern Nigeria. As a Clinical Psychologist, his work has been both on mental and behavioural disorders and the effects of chronic disease on the well-being of patients and caregivers. As a Social Scientist, he just concluded a study that documented the well-being of people with stigmatizing skin diseases and established a care and support group within the community. More recently he is working on developing a well-being tool for parents and children with disability.

Dr Akinola Oluwole – Consultant, Sightsavers, Nigeria

Dr Akinola Oluwole is an experienced researcher with a special interest in socio-epidemiology of tropical infectious diseases. His multidisciplinary expertise includes spatial disease mapping, monitoring and evaluation of intervention and control programmes and implementation/Health systems research for public health and disease control. He has over Fifteen years’ experience working on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Recently, Dr Akinola was the programme lead for two Co-production research projects within the COUNTDOWN consortia, one to develop a care package for Female Genital Schistosomiasis and a second to improve the equity of mass drug administration in Nigeria. Both projects utilised innovative Participatory Health Research methods to generate evidence-based information on how to effectively tackle implementation challenges for NTD programme in Nigeria. Dr Akinola has strengthened the capacity of health systems actors, NTD implementers and researchers through training, mentorship and the development of practical guidelines and policy.

He is passionate about influencing policy change in Nigeria and Internationally to reduce inequities created by NTDS within the poorest communities.

Yaimie López - Research Assistant, Centre for Health Studies, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

Yaimie is a biologist from Guatemala with research experience in vector borne diseases and strengthening of health systems. She has been involved in several quantitative research projects focused on the biological side of the diseases, and in one qualitative project to understand the perception of key actors involved. The qualitative project was done with the participatory action research methods, with municipal stakeholders acting as co-researchers. The aim of the project was to develop a tool that would help to measure and improve the governance, leadership, multisectoral action and accountability of two municipal health systems. The project used PAR for the development of the tool, including the co-selection of questions, rating criteria and the visual presentation of the tool.

LSTM’s translational research process

LSTM categorises the process of translating research findings into practical benefits for people living mainly in low and middle-income countries, into 5 stages:

Discovery

Development

Implementation

Evaluation & review

Research uptake

This pathway, leading from the field into the laboratory is often followed by taking the research back into the field again. Even during the initial laboratory phase, LSTM works together with its many overseas partners to deliver as much of the science locally in order to support high-quality research and capacity strengthening there where it matters most.

The continuous search for, and development, of new products will help to improve prevention and treatment of many diseases and address global health issues. This, together with knowledge of their effective implementation and an understanding of their impact through monitoring and evaluation, aim to achieve the uptake of LSTM’s research outcomes into policies and practices, ultimately benefiting patients worldwide.

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The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as TB, NTD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to global health and community engagement.  

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.