Senior Research Fellow
PhD
Dr. Malinga is a Senior Research Fellow within the Intervention and Infectious disease modelling team, specializing in quantitative and qualitative evidence generation using epidemiological, statistical, and mathematical modeling methods. Her recent research focuses on the use of mathematical modelling and simulation to predict the impact of malaria vaccines and novel medical interventions for malaria, including drugs and monoclonal antibodies, on transmission and disease burden, providing evidence for decision making to product developers, and policy makers such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
With over 8 years of experience in public health research and infectious disease modelling, Dr. Malinga has been involved in a variety of projects including application of epidemiological field methods in resource limited settings, development and use of mobile and eHealth applications, statistical analysis and reporting of health studies, to mathematical modelling of infectious diseases and interventions, and projects in collaboration with national malaria programs and Ministries of Health. Previously, she held post-doctoral positions at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and Duke Global Health Institute focusing on providing modeling evidence for product development and policy decision-making in the field of malaria transmission.
Dr. Malinga obtained her PhD from the University of Basel in 2019, specializing in fine-scale temporal and spatial patterns of malaria transmission. Currently, she is involved in projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and serves as a co-principal investigator on a Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (VIMC) grant aimed at predicting the population-level impact of RTS,S and R21 malaria vaccines deployment in Africa.