Name:Dr. Gloria Ivy Mensah

Email:gmensah@noguchi.ug.edu.gh

Telephone:+233-302-501178/9

Department:Bacteriology

Dr. Mensah was first appointed as a Senior Research Assistant of the department of Bacteriology in February 2003 where she has been involved in various research studies on “Food safety”, “Tuberculosis” and “bacterial zoonosis”. She was part of the team that coordinated the first Tuberculin Skin Test Survey in Ghana involving 25,000 school children which led to an estimation of the risk of TB infection in 2010. She was also part of the team that recruited and trained laboratory personnel working in Private labs in TB diagnosis and quality assurance during the implementation of the Private-Public Mix DOTs (PPM-DOTs) in Ghana.

In 2014, she was awarded a PhD in Medical Research-International Health from the Ludwig Maximillians University (CIHLMU) in Munich-Germany. For her PhD studies, Dr. Mensah assessed the immunological profiles of Ghanaian TB patients in response to differentially expressed MTB proteins and how these could be exploited as biomarkers for TB treatment response and cure. This study led to the establishment for the first time, of a tuberculosis immunology research team in NMIMR using flow cytometry-based intracellular cytokine staining techniques.

She has a BSc in Biological Sciences from KNUST and an MPhil in Animal Science (Microbiology and Immunology) from the University of Ghana.

In 2010 and 2011, she interned at the Yale University School of Medicine in the USA and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK, where she acquired skills in studies on Human immune response to TB infection and purification of bacterial proteins respectively.

 Dr. Gloria Ivy Mensah subscribes to the ‘One Health’ concept of research and is a Fellow of the Afrique One-ASPIRE Consortium made up of some institutions of higher learning in West and East Africa and Northern partners to conduct research on ecosystem and population health.
Dr. Gloria Ivy Mensah is a part-time lecturer at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Ghana. She is passionate about mentorship-especially for female students interested in biomedical careers, and has been engaged in mentoring activities both informally and formally through networks such as GH scientific and Women in Biomedicine-Africa.

• ·         Host immune response to Bacterial infections (esp. TB)
• ·         Bacterial zoonosis
• ·         Food and water safety

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 Projects

• Title: Host immunological profiling from exposure to Mtb to active TB disease, in response to recently discovered differentially expressed Mtb proteins: A tuberculosis case-contact study in Ghana (2010-2014): Role: Research Assistant/PhD student.
• Title: Prevalence of TB infection among cattle and animal handlers: an insight into abattoir Practices in Accra (2012-2014). Role: Technical support/supervision.
• Title: Genotyping and drug susceptibility profiles of MTBC and NTM isolates obtained from the national TB prevalence survey (2014-2016). Role: Technical Support/supervision.

• Title: Impact of Macrophage Migratory Inhibitory Factor (MIF) gene polymorphisms on tuberculosis infection in Ghana (2016-2017). Role: Principal Investigator.
• Title: Relevance of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) low and high-producer phenotypes to outcome of tuberculosis infection in a Ghanaian cohort (2016-2018). Role: Principal Investigator.
• Title: Understanding the host response to TB for biomarker discovery: peripheral blood transcriptional signatures of Ghanaian TB patients and close household contacts (2016-2018). Role: Principal Investigator.
• Title: Characterization and drug resistance profiles of Mycobacterium species isolated from raw milk from Northern Ghana (2016-2017). Role: Principal Investigator.

Recent Publications

1. Mensah, G. I., Sowah, S. A., Asare-Yeboah, N. Y., Addo, K. K., Jackson-Sillah, D. (2017) Utility of QuantiFERON Tuberculosis Gold in Tube Test for Detecting Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Close Household Contacts of Confirmed Tuberculosis Patients in Accra, Ghana. Ijmy DOI: 10.4103/2212-5531.201891 http://www.ijmyco.org/text.asp?2017/6/1/27/201891
2. Zumla, A., Otchere, I. D., Mensah, G. I., Asante-Poku, A., Gehre, F., Maeurer, M., Bates, M., Mwaba. P., Ntoumi. F., Yeboah-Manu, D. (2016) Learning from epidemiological, clinical, and immunological studies on Mycobacterium africanum for improving current understanding of host–pathogen interactions, and for the development and evaluation of diagnostics, host-directed therapies, and vaccines for tuberculosis Int J Infect Dis   http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2016.12.003
3. Addo, K. K., Adjei, V. Y., Mensah, G. I., Jackson-Sillah, D. (2016): Prevalence of tuberculosis infection in a cohort of cattle that enters the food chain in Accra, Ghana using bovigram Mycobact Dis, 6:5 DOI: 10.4172/2161-1068.1000229
4. Addo KK, Adjei VY, Mensah GI, Jackson-Sillah D. Microbial Quality and Antibiotic Residues in Raw Beef from Selected Abattoirs in Accra, Ghana. IJTDH. 2014 December 27; 6(1): 20-26.
5. Mensah GI, Addo KK, Tetteh JAK, Sowah SA, Loescher T, Geldmacher C, Jackson-Sillah D. Cytokine response to selected MTB antigens in Ghanaian TB patients, before and at 2 weeks of anti-TB therapy is characterized by high expression of IFN-gamma and Granzyme B and inter- individual variation. BMC Infect Dis. 2014 September 10; 14:495-506.
6. Jackson-Sillah D, Cliff JM, Mensah GI, Dickson E, Sowah S, Tetteh JAK, Addo KK, Ottenhoff THM, Bothamley G, Dockrell HM. Recombinant ESAT-6-CFP10 Fusion Protein induction of Th1/Th2 cytokines and FoxP3 Expressing Treg cells in Pulmonary TB. PLoS One 2013 June 27;8(6):e68121.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068121.
7. Addo KK, Mensah GI, Nartey N, Nipah GK, Mensah D, Aning KG, Smits HL. Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) of Herdsmen in Ghana with respect to Milk-Borne Zoonotic Diseases and the Safe Handling of Milk. J Basic Appl Sci Res. 2011 1(10)1556-1562