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Dr Edessa Gobena

Senior Lecturer in Clinical Immunology & Haematology

Senior Lecturer

Clinical immunology, Haematology, Microbiology, Public Health Biostatistics

Department of Bioscience , School Of Health, Sport And Bioscience

Dr Edessa Negera Gobena is a senior lecturer of clinical immunology and haematology at the University of East London, School of Health, Sport, and Bioscience (HSB). He has been trained and qualified in clinical immunology, public health, and microbiology. He has had extensive experience working in academia and research institutes in low and high-income countries for more than fifteen years.

He has taught various clinical and basic science modules at Ethiopian and UK universities for over a decade. He has conducted several cross-cutting research in diseases of public health importance in low-income countries.

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons) Biology
  • BSc (Clinical Public Health)
  • MSc (Microbiology)
  • MSc (Public Health)
  • PhD (Clinical immunology)

Areas Of Interest

  • Infection and immunity
  • Vaccine development and determinants of health
  • Big data analysis
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OVERVIEW

Dr Edessa Negera Gobena has contributed to the development of prevention and treatment guidelines for tropical infectious diseases with the World Health Organisation in East Africa. He has previously served as a scientific board member of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health in the control of communicable diseases for two years. He has led the bacteriology research department at Armature Hansen National Research Institute (AHRI), Ethiopia. He has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) for four years on investigating the role of cereblon and regulatory T-cells in Erythema Nodosum Leprosum (ENL). He has also taught communicable disease control, immunology of clinical diseases and experimental design and data analysis postgraduate modules at LSHTM. He worked for a year at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as an immunologist in a pneumococcal vaccine development clinical trial.

He has supervised several MSc/MRes and two PhD students. He has published more than 30 articles in reputable journals. Previously he secured external research grants from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, Homes and Hospitals of St Giles (UK) and Ethiopian Science and Technology. He joined UEL in 2022 as a lecturer of clinical immunology and haematology. He currently leads the clinical immunology, haematology and transfusion sciences, biology of diseases and clinical diagnosis and immunology and immunotherapy modules. He also provides a statistical data analysis service for staff and postgraduate students. He is interested in exploring the role of evidence-based research in therapeutic decision-making to improve health worldwide.

CURRENT RESEARCH

He has published 30 articles on his research findings in reputable high-impact journals which contributed to the generation of knowledge as well as policy changes.

Research and impact

  1. New approaches to understanding the immunopathology of ENL (7 publications): Erythemam nodosum leprosum (ENL) is traditionally considered as an immune-complex mediated disease.  However, there is no single work available to support this hypothesis.  In his PhD study, he hypothesised cell-mediated immunity as a key driver of ENL.  In his series of 7 publications from his PhD work in 2017/18, he demonstrated that the causes of ENL are complex and multifactorial and ruled out the immune-complex dogma as a sole cause of ENL. His approaches to studying the pathogenesis of ENL have alerted researchers and leprologists to think of ENL outside of the immune-complex zone. The findings have been presented at national and international professional seminars: World Immune Regulation WRIM, 2016, Davos Switzerland),  International Leprosy Congress (ILC, Beijing 2016), London Acid Fact Club (2016, 2019) and Ethiopian Science and Technology Seminars 2018).
  2. Treatment Response of Cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania aethiopica to Cryotherapy and Generic Sodium Stibogluconate (SSG): from patients in Silti, Ethiopia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2012): 106,496– 503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trstmh.2012.02.006.

    Contribution:  RCT of 123 people with cutaneous leishmaniasis were either treated with liquid nitrogen (Cryotherapy) or with generic sodium stibogluconate (SSG). The efficacy of cryotherapy and SSG was found to be 93.3% and 89.5% respectively with no statistically significant difference. SSG was not recommended for cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. aethiopica and there was no standard treatment protocol for CL in Ethiopia.  Following his presentation to the WHO regional workshop in 2012, the paper was used as a major reference to develop cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment guidelines in Ethiopia in collaboration with WHO-TDR and the Ministry of Health.
  3. Outbreak of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Silti Woreda, Ethiopia: risk factor assessment and causative agent identification. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, (2008): 102, 883-90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trstmh.2008.03.021.

    Contribution: he investigated an outbreak of leishmaniasis in the Silti district of Ethiopia, a place hitherto unknown to leishmaniasis using classical and molecular tools.  He also identified some important risk factors associated with the outbreak. He organised community feedback in the study area bringing together the community, community leaders, administrative officials, scientists, and the Ministry of Health which laid a foundation to launch a cutaneous leishmaniasis surveillance programme in the region.  In recognition of his work, he received a Tore Godal prize award (Joint award by the Ministry of Health and Norwegian Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).

Most recent research

  • Edessa Negera, Bobosha K, Aseffa A, Dockrell HM, Lockwood DNJ, et al. (2022) Regulatory T cells in erythema nodosum leprosum maintain anti-inflammatory function. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16(7):  e0010641.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010641.
  • Tsehaynesh Lema, Kidist Bobosha, Yonas Bekele, Edessa Negera, Addis Mengiste, Tsegaye Hailu, Samuel Ayele, Tadeye Abeje, Lawrence Yamuah, Abraham Aseffa, & Yimtubezenash Woldeamanuel. (2022). Knowledge, attitude and practice of health workers towards leprosy at a high burden rural site in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Medical Journal, 60(3: 275-282.
  • Carniel BF, Marcon F, Rylance J, German EL, Zaidi S, Reine J, Negera E, Nikolaou E, Pojar S, Solórzano C, Collins AM, Connor V, Bogaert D, Gordon SB, Nakaya HI, Ferreira DM, Jochems SP, Mitsi E. Pneumococcal colonisation impairs mucosal immune responses to Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine in adults. JCI Insight. 2021 Jan 26:141088. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.141088. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33497364.

MODULES

  • Infection and Immunity (BS5100)
  • Haematology and Transfusion Sciences (BS5111)
  • Clinical Immunology (BS6115)
  • Biology of Diseases and Clinical Diagnosis (BS7203)
  • Immunology and Immunotherapy (BS7206)
  • Experimental Techniques and Laboratory Practice (BS7200)

Publications

Browse past publications by year.

Full publications list

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Research repository