Team Bio

Dr. Graeme Mardon received his B.S. in 1980 with a double major in Biology and Chemistry from Haverford College. Following a four-year research associate position with Dr. Harold E. Varmus studying the viral oncogene src at the University of California in San Francisco, Dr. Mardon began graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 in the laboratory of Dr. David C. Page where he studied genes located in the sex-determining region of the mouse Y chromosome. Dr. Mardon joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in 1994 where he has established a research program studying the molecular genetics of developmental neurobiology using both the fruit fly Drosophila and the mouse as animal model systems. Over the last decade, Dr. Mardon has employed genomics approaches to study retinal development in Drosophila and humans and more recently to study TB and AIDS in African children.

Graeme Mardon

Dr. Graeme Mardon received his B.S. in 1980 with a double major in Biology and Chemistry from Haverford College. Following a four-year research associate position with Dr. Harold E. Varmus studying the viral oncogene src at the University of California in San Francisco, Dr. Mardon began graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 in the laboratory of Dr. David C. Page where he studied genes located in the sex-determining region of the mouse Y chromosome. Dr. Mardon then conducted his postdoctoral work with Dr. Gerald M. Rubin at the University of California in Berkeley from 1990 to 1994 studying genes required for normal eye development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Dr. Mardon joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in 1994 where he has established a research program studying the molecular genetics of developmental neurobiology using both the fruit fly Drosophila and the mouse as animal model systems. Over the last decade, Dr. Mardon has employed genomics approaches to study retinal development in Drosophila and humans and more recently to study TB and AIDS in African children.

Gabriel Anabwani

Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by the factors that determine heredity. I learned later that these are called genes in English. Born in rural colonial Kenya in 1948, I graduated from the University of Nairobi medical school in 1975 and later earned a Master of Medicine degree in pediatrics, completed a British Council Fellowship in pediatric cardiology at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, UK and a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University, Canada. I taught pediatrics at the University of Nairobi and at Moi University in Kenya before relocating to Botswana in 1997. Since then I became deeply involved in the care of children living with HIV as this disease had become the major killer of children in Botswana and indeed in sub-Sahara Africa. Working with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine, we established the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence, the first free standing pediatric HIV care clinic in Africa in 2003. We are now interested in understanding why some children who are infected with HIV progress rapidly to AIDS and death while others survive for many years without clinical evidence of disease. Similarly, some children who are co-infected with tuberculosis progress rapidly why others do not. Is there a genetic explanation for this? Understanding the genetic basis for these phenomena opens many therapeutic possibilities. That is why we have formed CAfGEN - a Collaborative African Genomics Network to spearhead this research.

Chester Wayne Brown

Over the past 2 decades I have been exploring the mechanisms by which genes either cause or influence human disease. Our technologies have now reached a point that these questions can be addressed directly in patients. This gives us the best chance to find answers that will lead to better tools to make early diagnoses and perhaps better treatments for HIV, tuberculosis and many other diseases. CAfGEN seeks to do both of these things through our research projects, while simultaneously empowering scientists in Africa to carry out these and related studies on their own populations now and well into the future. Achieving these goals will require rigorous training experiences, developing educational programs in genomics in African universities, and providing the necessary technologies and infrastructure in Africa to sustain independent, large scale genomics research projects. Because of the rich genetic diversity of the peoples of Africa and the overwhelming burden of disease, particularly in children, African populations have both the most to contribute and the most to gain from our understanding of the genetic basis of human disease.

Neil A Hanchard

I am a pediatrician and clinical geneticist originally from the sunny island of Jamaica. Through a series of serendipitous events after completing med school, I ended up in the world of genetics, and lo' and behold - I really liked it! Ever since, I've been trying to meld genetics with both the rare and the common diseases that I learned about in med school, particularly in under-represented populations.

Edward Pettitt

Ed Pettitt received his Bachelor of Science degree in Human Biology from Cornell University and is currently completing graduate work in Healthcare Management and Global Health at The University of Texas School of Public Health. Mr. Pettitt works as a Senior Project Coordinator for the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children's Hospital (BIPAI) and Collaborative African Genomics Network, where advises on best practices in adolescent medicine and healthcare transition and is helping to launch Africa's first collaborative pediatric genomics initaitive in Botswana and Uganda. Mr. Pettitt has served as an HIV/AIDS technical expert for WHO, UNICEF, USAID, and FHI 360, and is co-founder of the Houston Global Health Collaborative. Mr. Pettitt has also been recognized as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow for Life and a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow.