Prof. Linda (Mrs.) Batsa Debrah
Centre Director
Prof. (Mrs.) Linda Batsa Debrah is a lecturer in Medical Parasitology at the Department of Clinical Microbiology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, KNUST Kumasi. She obtained her BSc. (Hons) degree in Biological Science in 2001 and M’Phil in Clinical Microbiology in 2006. In 2008, she got a sponsorship from German Research Foundation (DFG) to do her PhD at the Laboratory of Prof. Achim Hoerauf at the Institute of Immunology Microbiology and Parasitology in Bonn University in Germany and KNUST. She has risen through the ranks through the position of assistant researcher, researcher and now a research fellow. She has been the coordinator of filariasis projects at KCCR since 2011 and currently the Co-Principal investigator of a multi-country project (Take OFF) sponsored by the German Federal ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). She works on Neglected Tropical Diseases with Filariasis as her area of interest. Finding a cure for filariasis and elucidating the genetic basis of Lymphatic filariasis is one of the cornerstones of her research work. In addition, she conducts research on other Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) such as Buruli Ulcer disease and Intestinal helminths as well as Tuberculosis trying to find the effect of coinfection of these diseases on filariasis. She has a number of ongoing research activities sponsored by German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), German Research Foundation (DFG) among others. She has over 30 publications to her credit.
Qualifications
Degree/Education
- PhD. Clinical Microbiology (Medical Parasitology) - June 2013
- MPhil. Clinical Microbiology - Feb. 2006
- BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences - July 2002
Institutions of Study
- University of Bonn, Germany
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Ghana
Research Areas/Interests
- Molecular /genetic identification of biomarkers for diagnosis of infectious diseases
- Clinical trials to assess drug efficacy in Neglected Tropical Diseases
Areas of Specialization
- Medical Parasitology
- Immunology
- Molecular Biology