Rwandan Research Fellowship

National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Jean Nepo Utumatwishima, the first Rwandan fellow, returned to Rwanda to launch a diabetes registry project and a diabetes screening and primary prevention program. He was selected to participate in the 2018 International Summit in Human Genetics and Genomics hosted by the NHGRI Medical Genetics and Genomic Medicine Training Program and funded in part by NIMHD. One of the primary goals of this summit is to build international capacity and collaborations with low-income countries in genomic research and medicine. Dr. Utumatwishima will return to the NIH campus for this Summit scheduled to take place August 29-September 29, 2018. For FY18, after a rigorous screening process, Dr. Jean Damascene Kabakambira was selected as the second Rwandan fellow. His one-year fellowship occurred between July 2017 July 2018. While at NIDDK, Dr. Kabakambira studied low-cost screening options for Type 2 diabetes among African Immigrants living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, with a specific focus on waist circumference. He engaged first-hand with the African immigrant community and recruited people into the study by conducting in-person community health education activities and raising awareness of diabetes prevention and risk factors. Now that Dr. Kabakambira has returned to Rwanda, he is participating in establishing a national diabetes registry and is continuing his diabetes prevention and screening research, examining waistline thresholds for identification of high-risk groups in Rwanda. The third fellow of the Rwanda Fellowship has been selected and has started her fellowship year at NIDDK. Dr. Regine Mugeni will work with Dr. Sumner on a research project designed to identify optimal blood screening tests for early detection and prevention of diabetes in Africans.