Background
Martin Ota joined the MRC-The Gambia in April 2006 as the Clinical Immunologist / Vaccinologist in the Bacterial Disease Programme. Martin Ota is a specialist paediatrician with a PhD in immunology of infectious diseases. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, member of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria and the American Society of Immunology. He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York University Medical School, USA. He currently heads the TB immunology/vaccinology group including MRC‘s renowned Tuberculosis Case Contact (TBCC) platform all within the Vaccinology research theme. His research interest is cross cutting, including but not limited to (I) identification of biomarkers for protection against or susceptibility to tuberculosis (II) Phase I/II vaccine trial portfolio of novel TB and pneumococcal vaccines (III) characterisation of protective humoral and cellular immune responses to pneumococcus and meningococcus infections and vaccines.
His work has contributed to the characterisation of the cellular immune responses to BCG, hepatitis B, oral polio vaccines in human newborns, measles virus and the mechanisms behind the associated immune suppression; and the influence of BCG on the immune responses to other vaccines.
He is is currently responsible for the natural protective immunity against TB work package within the Gates Grand Challenge for Global Health Biomarkers of Protective Immunity against Tuberculosis research consortium, and project coordinator for a EDCTP funded multi-site proof-of-concept Phase IIb clinical trial to evaluate the protective efficacy of a booster MVA85A vaccination administered to HIV infected persons.
The Ota group at the MRC has extensive experience in Clinical research in Paediatrics and child health; newborn immune response and vaccine interactions; laboratory experience in immunology and assessment of novel immunodiagnostic tools for tuberculosis and pneumococcus; vaccine design and trials and a good publication portfolio
