TriageTB builds on two previous EDCTP-funded studies, AE-TBC and ScreenTB. AnnRitah Namuganga got involved in AE-TBC around the same time as she began her master's in the early 2010s and continued working with the group when ScreenTB was launched in 2016. Today, AnnRitah Namuganga is pursuing a PhD in immunology and molecular biology at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, while working as a Laboratory Coordinator and Technologist in TriageTB and as a Fellow at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa.

“This decade-long journey has helped me grow both intellectually and professionally. To describe how I have developed during this time, I often jokingly say that I was an egg when I joined AE-TBC and then hatched and became a chicken during ScreenTB – now I am a mother hen, in the sense that I am also mentoring others,” says AnnRitah Namuganga.

Fellowship at Stellenbosch University

In late 2019, AnnRitah Namuganga was awarded a fellowship by the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, which included a 9-month stay at TriageTB’s coordinating institute, Stellenbosch University. She was initially going to travel there in 2020, but the pandemic put paid to this plan. After a long wait, she arrived in Cape Town in March 2022.

“These first months at Stellenbosch University have been lovely. I appreciate the programme’s dual focus on theoretical and technical skills in an advanced setting. It is very helpful to combine time in the lab with trainings focused on time and process management,” says AnnRitah Namuganga.  

Even if the TriageTB teams at Makerere University and Stellenbosch University follow the same study protocols, their internal structures are different:

“Stellenbosch is a highly equipped facility. This makes the process here quite different from the way we do it in Uganda so I will bring with me multiple lessons for the team at Makerere University,” says AnnRitah Namuganga.  

Support from the TriageTB mentorship scheme

The TriageTB mentorship scheme is a continuation of the capacity building activities that were carried out in AE-TBC and ScreenTB. AnnRitah Namuganga has been involved in all projects’ mentorship schemes, working together with her mentor Dr Jayne Sutherland of the Medical Research Council Unit the Gambia at LSHTM.

“She is always very responsive and helps me navigate different aspects of my career. I am blessed to be surrounded by supervisors and a mentor who speak to every aspect of my life and help me develop into an accomplished scientist,” says AnnRitah Namuganga.

She underlines that working with TriageTB and its predecessors has not just helped to advance her career but has also strengthened her interest in research related to tuberculosis diagnostics.

“I am excited to one day see the test strips that we are working on being used in clinics. After finalizing my PhD, I want to continue translating ongoing research to contribute towards blood-based tuberculosis diagnostics.”

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