The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) has named Bartholomew Ondigo its 2025–2026 Visiting Research Scholar. Ondigo is a senior lecturer and principal investigator in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Egerton University in Kenya. The Visiting Research Scholars Program provides Harvard faculty with an opportunity to strengthen collaboration with international researchers in global health. Through a six-week, in-person residency in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the program fosters deeper academic engagement and advances joint research initiatives.
Research Collaboration
During his HGHI visiting scholarship, Ondigo is collaborating with Azza H. Idris, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, to investigate how the immune system protects pregnant women from malaria, particularly at the placenta. Drawing on Ondigo’s cohort of pregnant women in western Kenya and his expertise in placental malaria and field immunology, together with the Idris Lab’s advanced monoclonal antibody tools at the Ragon Institute, the team is analyzing antibody responses to VAR2CSA, the key placental malaria antigen.
Their research aims to identify antibodies that prevent infected red blood cells from binding in the placenta and to define immune correlates of protection that could guide next-generation maternal vaccines and interventions. The collaboration also seeks to adapt these laboratory methods for implementation and long-term sustainability at Egerton University following Ondigo’s return to Kenya.
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