Team – Copy – Nepalstudy

NeFCoS Team Member

Respiratory, Cardiovascular, Cancer and Diabetes

Om P. Kurmi, PhD

Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiologist, Coventry University/McMaster University, UK

Om P. Kurmi, PhD

Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiologist, Coventry University/McMaster University, UK

Dr. Kurmi received his undergraduate degree from Tribhuwan University, Nepal and PhD in Public Health from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He completed his post-doctoral training at the University of Birmingham, UK, in the Institute of Occupational Medicine. He worked as a Senior Scientist in Respiratory Epidemiology at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, the University of Oxford, UK. He worked as an Assistant Professor in Respiratory Epidemiology in the Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Currently, he is working as an Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Evidence-based Healthcare Research at Coventry University. He is the chair of the Respiratory Epidemiology Group (6.01) of the European Respiratory Society and the Fellows of the Royal Society of Public Health. He has worked in several large prospective cohorts across all geographical regions, including in biobank studies. His primary research expertise is Respiratory Epidemiology and Environmental Health Epidemiology, and he has been teaching observational research methods and problem-based learning to undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has set up a family cohort in two regions of Nepal to understand the major determinants of health, particularly lung health in children.

Phone:+44 7949 393386
Email:[email protected]

Dr. John R. Balmes

Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, at the School of Public Health, at the University of California, Berkeley

Dr. John R. Balmes

Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, at the School of Public Health, at the University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Balmes is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, at the School of Public Health, at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MD degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1976. After internal medicine training at Mount Sinai and pulmonary subspecialty, occupational medicine, and research training at Yale, he joined the faculty of USC in 1982. He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1986 and is currently Professor in the Divisions of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). His major academic activities include several collaborative epidemiological research projects, various advisory and editorial committees, and clinical duties at ZSFG. Dr. Balmes directed the UCSF Human Exposure Laboratory (HEL), has been studying the respiratory health effects of various air pollutants for approximately 30 years. The HEL was the first group to demonstrate a) histological evidence of ozone-induced airway injury and inflammation in human subjects, b) that asthmatic subjects have greater inflammatory responses to ozone than normal subjects, c) that ozone-induced inflammatory responses in normal subjects attenuate with short-term exposures on consecutive days in the lung, and d) that asthmatic subjects recruit macrophages to the airways with consecutive day exposures. The lab also studied acute cardiovascular responses after both ozone and secondhand tobacco smoke. Dr. Balmes also collaborates on several epidemiological projects that are run out of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health where he is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences. One such project is called the Children’s Health and Air Pollution Study (CHAPS). The overall specific goal of CHAPS is to assess the impact of air pollution on the health of children living in the San Joaquin Valley, including adverse effects on immune and metabolic function. He also collaborates on studies of the effects of biomass smoke exposure on the respiratory health of children as well as respiratory and cardiovascular health of adults in rural Guatemala, Malawi, Rwanda, and Nepal.

Paul M O’Byrne, MD

Dean and Vice President of the faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Canada

Paul M O’Byrne, MD

Dean and Vice President of the faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Canada

Paul M. O’Byrne obtained his Medical Degree at University College, Dublin. He is currently the Dean and Vice President of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. His research interests focus on the mechanisms and treatment of asthma. He has published more than 500 peer reviewed papers and has an h-index (Google Scholar) of 124. His accolades include the James H. Graham Award of Merit of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; election to the Royal Society of Canada; the European Respiratory Society Congress Award and Medal; election to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences; and, McMaster’s top academic award, Distinguished University Professor. In 2017, the American College of Chest Physicians named him a Giant of Chest Medicine and more recently, he received an Honorary Life Achievement Award from the Ontario Thoracic Society, the Jack Hirsh Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement from McMaster University and Medical Graduate Distinguished Alumnus Award from University College, Dublin.

Bhagawan Koirala, MD

Chairperson, Kathmandu Institute of Child Health, Nepal

Bhagawan Koirala, MD

Chairperson, Kathmandu Institute of Child Health, Nepal

He is a Cardiothoracic surgeon, professor and Social worker. He is best known for pioneering Open-heart surgery in Nepal, and for starting an operational cardiac care for the public. He started a "Poor Patients Relief" program in 2003, with the support of the Government of Nepal, which focuses on providing free Cardiac care for children, elderly and needy. He post-graduated from National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dhaka University, in 1994, and later completed an unaccredited United States Medical Licensing Examination (Step I) in 1996 and (Step II and III) in 2000. Koirala was the Executive Director and Chief of Cardiac Surgery of Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center between 2001 and 2009. He is currently the Executive Director of TU Teaching Hospital. also known for being a philanthropic organization. He is also involved with different national and international projects and campaigns to ensure funds and charity for needy patients. He has performed over 10,000 heart operations, personally or directly supervised, from 2001 to 2012. Being one of the senior-most surgeon and capable administrator, he was appointed the Director of T.U. Teaching Hospital (TUTH), where he first started his career, in November 2012. In 2019, Koirala was appointed chairperson of the Nepal Medical Council, the sole government entity that tests the competence of MBBS graduates. Currently, Prof Koirala is the chairman and founder of Kathmandu Institute of Child Health (KIOCH). KIOCH is a not-for-profit organization established in 2017. It aims to deliver integrated multispecialty high-quality child healthcare that is affordable, accessible, and available to all, thus advancing Quality of Life of Children in Nepal. KIOCH focuses on providing solutions to ever rising healthcare needs and consistent poor health outcomes for millions of children in Nepal. It believes on timely adaptation of scientific medical advances, technologies and valued people-centered care that are of international standards.

Charlotte E Bolton, MD

Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK

Charlotte E Bolton, MD

Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK

Professor Charlotte Bolton is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Nottingham, UK and a clinical consultant. Her focus is on chronic lung disease including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and early life factors of later lung health. In addition, she has an interest in pulmonary rehabilitation and chronic disease management. She has active research collaborations with colleagues in Nepal, through Global Challenges in Research Funding (GCRF) since 2018. She is a member of the British Thoracic Society Global Health Group

Dr Nagendra Chaudhary, MD

Associate Professor in Paediatrics, UCMS, Nepal

Dr Nagendra Chaudhary, MD

Associate Professor in Paediatrics, UCMS, Nepal

Dr. Nagendra Chaudhary completed his primary medical education (MBBS) from Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal (2001-2005) on a full scholarship provided by the government of Nepal. He was appointed as a chief medical officer at Lumbini Primary Health Centre, Lumbini, Nepal, for two years under the Nepal government. Further, Dr. Chaudhary was given a scholarship to study his postgraduate in Pediatrics from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, one of the prestigious institutes of India (2010-2012). Dr. Chaudhary is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal. He has a teaching experience of more than a decade of with both undergraduate and postgraduate students in Pediatrics. He has supervised postgraduates in Pediatrics for the last ten years. He has more than 50 publications, authored four books, and contributed chapters in pediatric books. He is also a member of editorial boards and a reviewer of many national and international journals. He has presented numerous oral papers/posters/faculty speakers on national and international platforms. His research interests mainly focus on Neonatology, Pediatric Pulmonology and General Pediatrics.

Women and Reproductive Health

Edwin Van Teijlingen, PhD

Professor of Reproductive Health, Bournemouth University, UK

Edwin Van Teijlingen, PhD

Professor of Reproductive Health, Bournemouth University, UK

Edwin van Teijlingen is Professor of Reproductive Health Research & joint director of the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), Bournemouth University, UK. Edwin has been an Associate Editor of BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth since 2008. He is Visiting Faculty at the University of Nottingham, UK, Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences and Nobel College (both in Nepal) and the Centre for Disability Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. He is trained as a medical sociologist and has published over 300 papers. He has conducted research in South Asia, especially Nepal, Bangladesh and India, for nearly two decades.

Gayathri De Lanerolle, MD

The University of Oxford and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Gayathri De Lanerolle, MD

The University of Oxford and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Dr. Gayathri De Lanerolle has worked in the clinical and academic domain for almost 2 decades as a Principal or Co-Investigator. Her ongoing research projects involve an array of Clinical trials and Epidemiology studies in a variety of clinical areas. Dr De Lanerolle has over a decade of industry sponsored immunotherapy trial experience for a variety of cancers and, first-in-human clinical studies evaluating a variety of investigational medicinal products, medical devices and complex interventions. She has a special interest in Women's Health and associated Disease Sequalae, Chronic conditions, Multimorbidity and Infectious diseases. In addition, Dr DeLanerolle she has experience in clinical leadership and research management.

Discovery and Translational

Tara Sigdel, PhD

Associate Professor, University of California San Francisco, USA

Tara Sigdel, PhD

Associate Professor, University of California San Francisco, USA

Dr. Tara Sigdel is an associate professor of surgery at the University of California. He obtained his PhD in biochemistry from Miami University (OH) followed by postdoctoral training in biomarker discovery, immunology, and organ transplantation at Stanford University. Dr. Sigdel is actively involved in the identification of non-invasive biomarkers genes, peptides, proteins, and antibodies that monitor disease status after kidney transplantation. He has authored and co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Dr. Sigdel is also a founder, Board Member, and Director (Natural and Applied Sciences) of Nexus Institute of Research and Innovation (NIRI): a society established to promote quality research and innovation in Nepal and beyond. Dr. Sigdel is a founder member of the International Nepali Biomedical Society (INBS) which is established to promote networking and communication among Nepali who is in the field of biomedicine. Dr. Sigdel is passionate about communicating with the Nepali community in the US and in Nepal. He has been running “Chautari” both in person and online where he collaborates with Dr. Toya Baral to speak with guests who have useful messages to the community. Because of his passion for training and mentoring young students in Nepal, he is leading the collaboration between NIRI and Lokopakar to mentor public high school students in different districts of Nepal.

Sanjivan Gautam, PhD

Director and Group Leader, AstraZeneca, USA

Sanjivan Gautam, PhD

Director and Group Leader, AstraZeneca, USA

Dr. Gautam is an immunologist who received his doctorate from Max Planck Institute and University of Freiburg, Germany and Postdoctoral from National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. He holds an M.S in Molecular Medicine from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. His core area of expertise includes cellular immunology, CAR-T cell therapy, cancer immunotherapy, gene therapy, vaccines and immune cell memory, clinical trials involving gene and cellular therapies, autoimmunity, congenital and acquired immunodeficiency, and immune metabolism. He has published several high impact scientific papers and patents that have been licensed by pharm giants and biotech in the United States. He is currently serving as a research and strategic leader at AstraZeneca in the United States and is also working as adjunct faculty in American and Indian universities. He is the recipient of awards like Nepal Bidhya Bhushan “Ka” and ”Ga”, Distinguish Alumnus Award – Manipal University, University First Rank – Manipal University, Best Immunology Research Paper Award – NIH, NCI Directors Innovation Award – NIH, NCI – Flex Award, DFZ Postdoctoral and German Excellence Initiative Graduate Study Award. He is a member of several scientific and professional societies: American Society of Immunology, American Society of Hematology, American Association of Cancer Research and Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer. He has co-founded a biotech startup in Germany where he is implementing the tenets of immunology to facilitate the translation of I/O discoveries into improved patient outcome.

Rajendra Pangeni, PhD

Chairperson, NIRI Nepal, USA

Rajendra Pangeni, PhD

Chairperson, NIRI Nepal, USA

Dr. Pangeni was born and raised in Syangja, Nepal. He moved to Mumbai after high school to pursue his higher education. He returned to Nepal and worked in various schools and colleges as a teacher/lecturer and moved to the United Kingdom to pursue his Masters and Ph.D. Dr. Pangeni has received his post-doctoral training from Northwestern University and City of Hope National Medical Center in the USA. He received his research training in cancer epigenetics during his Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowships. Currently, he works on Cancer Genetics/epigenetics and metastases, Cancer epidemiology, Experimental therapeutics, Disease diagnostics and drug discovery

Balram Gautam, M.S.

Director, Decode Genomics and Research Centre, Nepal

Balram Gautam, M.S.

Director, Decode Genomics and Research Centre, Nepal

Mr. Gautam received his undergraduate degree from Pokhara University, Nepal and received M.S in Genetics through NOMA Scholarship from Colombo University, SriLanka in collaboration with Oslo University, Norway. He then joined National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Bir Hospital as Genetic Scientist and established a very first genetic laboratory at government level in Nepal back in 2015. He is the co-founder of Decode Genomics and Research Centre, where he has established many protocols to test infectious and genetic diseases prevalent in Nepal. He was appointed as a genetic diagnosis consultant by Ministry of Health and Population, (MoHP) Nepal during COVID-19 pandemics. During pandemic, he worked for the establishment of COVID-19 PCR testing laboratories across the country and was awarded with presidential “JANA SEWA SHREE “ award for this his contribution in confronting COVID-19 in Nepal.

Health System Research,Public and Environmental Health

Puspa Raj Pant, PhD

Research Fellow, University of the West of England, UK

Puspa Raj Pant, PhD

Research Fellow, University of the West of England, UK

Puspa Raj Pant is a Public Health Researcher with a specialty in Injury Prevention research, Road Safety, and Safety Promotion. He has over a decade long experience in these fields. His expertise includes: conducting social and public health surveys and qualitative studies; engaging community and stakeholders for public health and behavior change interventions; dissemination/ communication using social/ media. He is continuously promoting injury prevention and road safety in Nepal through peer reviewed articles, social media, newspaper columns and media. Dr Pant is a Research Fellow at UWE Bristol and Social Science Investigator at NIRI.

Pramod R Regmi, PhD

Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University, UK

Pramod R Regmi, PhD

Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University, UK

Dr Regmi is a global health researcher and has predominantly studied around health and wellbeing of migrants and left-behinds, young people’s sexual health, health promotion and health of ethnic minority populations. He also has an interest in Research Ethics and Research Capacity Strengthening in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the South Asia. He studied MSc (Health Services and Public Health Research) and PhD (Public Health) at the University of Aberdeen, UK. He also completed Master’s degree in Population Studies from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Before joining to the Bournemouth University, He had worked at Family Health International 360 (FHI360) as a Senior Surveillance and Research Specialist.

Padam Simkhada, PhD

Associate Dean International Professor of Global Health University of Huddersfield, UK

Padam Simkhada, PhD

Associate Dean International Professor of Global Health University of Huddersfield, UK

Prof Padam Simkhada is Professor of Global Health and International Associate Dean at the University of Huddersfield. Previously, he was Professor and Associate Dean at Liverpool John Moores University (2014-2019), Senior Lecturer in International Health at Sheffield University (2010-2014) and Programme Co-ordinator and Lecturer in International Health at the University of Aberdeen (2002-2010). Most of Prof Simkhada’s research are based on Nepal. He is currently working in a number of research projects including MRC funded research project on impact of federalization on Nepal’s health system. Prof Simkhada world leading researcher in Global Health. He has published over 200 research articles and book chapters in peer reviewed journal. Over 25 students have completed their doctorate (PhD) under his supervision. He has received many prestigious awards of public health field such as Global Health Award. He has completed M.Sc. in Public Health and Health Promotion with distinction from Brunel University in 1999 and PhD from Southampton University in 2002. Before he moved to the UK, he worked for Save the Children (UK) and Ministry of Health in Nepal. He is also a Visiting Professor in Nepal, Visiting Professor in Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University and Adjunct Faculty at Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences Nagpur, India. He has experience of working many countries including North America, Africa and Asia.

Ak Narayan Poudel, PhD

Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield, UK

Ak Narayan Poudel, PhD

Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield, UK

Dr. Ak Narayan Poudel is Senior Lecturer at University of Huddersfield (UoH). He obtained his PhD in Health Economics from University of Aberdeen (UoA) followed by postdoctoral trainings as health economist at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), University of Leeds (UoL), Swansea University (SU), University of Leicester (UoLei). Dr. Poudel is actively involved in teaching and research activities, such as economic evaluation of public health interventions (e.g., cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, cost-benefit analysis), economic impact analysis and decision modelling. Dr. Poudel has involved in many different projects ranging from randomised control trials to observational studies. He has authored and co-authored many health economics and public health peer-reviewed scientific papers. Dr. Poudel is a member of the Health Economics Study Group, UK. Dr Poudel has over a decade of experience in Health Economics and mainly interested in economic evaluation of public health and digital interventions. Subject wise he is mostly interested on antimicrobial resistant, HIV/AIDS and sexual health, mental health, COPD, cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes and disabilities.

Biostatistics

Jian Qing Shi, PhD

Professor of Statistics, Director, Center for Biostatistics, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Jian Qing Shi, PhD

Professor of Statistics, Director, Center for Biostatistics, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Professor Jian Qing Shi is a Senior Medical Statistician working on a variety of Global Health Projects. He is a Professor of Statistics of the Department of Statistics and Data Science and the Director of the Center for Biostatistics, at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen China. He was a Reader in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics and Assistant Director of Cloud Computing for Big Data CDT at Newcastle University, UK. He is a former Turing Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute. His research interests include Functional Data Analysis, Missing data and bias analysis and Covariance structural analysis. He has had highly impactful publications, including in the Journal of Royal Statistical Society Series B, Journal of American Statistical Association, Biometrika, Biometrics, Biostatistics and British Medical Journal. He has publish a monograph in Chapman & Hall, CRC ( Gaussian Process Regression Analysis for Functional Data with Choi. T. 2011). Professor Shi has been awarded a number of grants, including from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund ( £ 2.1 million Jan. 2012 -Jan.2015) and several grants from EPSRC and MRC.

Milan Bimali, PhD

Biostatistician, Inari Medical, USA

Milan Bimali, PhD

Biostatistician, Inari Medical, USA

Milan is currently a Biostatistics Manager at Inari Medical. He is the lead statistician overseeing the studies related to pulmonary embolism. Prior to his industry career, he worked as a faculty biostatistician for 6 years at an academic health center, first at University of Kansas School of Medicine and then at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He primarily collaborated with medical researchers and scientists, and provided support in study design, data analysis, and dissemination of study findings. He worked as a study statistician for the AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) statistical center and for Idea States Pediatrics Clinical Trials Network. He received his PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Kansas Medical Center and his postgraduate/postdoctoral training at Yale University.

Administrative and Finance

Mr Dipak Uprety, MBA

Office Manager, Board Member, NIRI Nepal, Nepal

Mr Dipak Uprety, MBA

Office Manager, Board Member, NIRI Nepal, Nepal

Mr. Uprety was born in Lisankhu Sindhupalchok Nepal. He completed his schooling in his birthplace and Darjeeling and then moved to Kathmandu for further study. Uprety has achieved MBA degree in Supply Chain Management from Arunachal University of Studies. Dipak moved to Qatar in 2007 to work in a multinational company. Since then, he has gained experiences working in managerial positions for various multinational companies. These multinational companies included Petrochemical, Energy, Oil & Gas, and other sectors. During his professional career, Dipak has gained trainings and skills in Procurement and Supply Chain Management, ISO 9001 based Quality Management System, Human Resources, Administration, Asset and Project Management, and more.

NeFCoS Team Member

Respiratory, Cardiovascular, Cancer and Diabetes

Om P. Kurmi, PhD

Dr. John R. Balmes

Paul M O’Byrne, MD

Bhagawan Koirala, MD

Charlotte E Bolton, MD

Dr Nagendra Chaudhary, MD

Women and Reproductive Health

Edwin Van Teijlingen, PhD

Gayathri De Lanerolle, MD

Discovery and Translational

Tara Sigdel, PhD

Sanjivan Gautam, PhD

Rajendra Pangeni, PhD

Balram Gautam, M.S.

Health System Research,Public and Environmental Health

Puspa Raj Pant, PhD

Pramod R Regmi, PhD

Padam Simkhada, PhD

Ak Narayan Poudel, PhD

Biostatistics

Jian Qing Shi, PhD

Milan Bimali, PhD

Administrative and Finance

Mr Dipak Uprety, MBA

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