• Malian malaria researcher Abdoulaye Djimdé has been appointed to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board.
• The body provides independent scientific advice to guide global policy decisions.
• His appointment comes as malaria resistance and funding gaps threaten global control efforts.

Professor Abdoulaye Djimdé, a Malian malaria specialist and researcher at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), has been appointed to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board.

The announcement was made March 9 by Mali’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, which described the appointment as recognition that honors both the country and its scientific community.

The advisory board, presented by the United Nations as a high-impact mechanism, provides independent scientific guidance to the Secretary-General and senior leadership to help inform global policy and decision-making.

A Scientist Trained Across Continents

Djimdé’s career reflects a blend of international training and strong academic roots in Africa.

He earned a doctorate in pharmacy from the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bamako in 1988. He later completed a PhD in microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore in 2001, following postdoctoral research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

During that period, he identified the first reliable molecular marker of chloroquine resistance in malaria parasites, a breakthrough published in The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, two of the world’s most influential medical journals.

Today he leads the Molecular Epidemiology and Drug Resistance Unit at the Malaria Research and Training Center at USTTB. He also directs the Plasmodium Diversity Network Africa (PDNA), a research network connecting scientists across several sub-Saharan African countries to strengthen collaboration and support evidence-based health policy.

His work has earned international recognition, including the Fighting Malaria Prize in 2002, the Christophe Mérieux Prize in 2023, and the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research awarded by the Japanese government in 2025.

Expertise Amid Growing Global Health Challenges

Djimdé’s appointment comes at a time when malaria remains a major global health challenge.

According to a World Health Organization statement published in December 2025, partial resistance to artemisinin-based treatments—the main therapy used against malaria—has now been confirmed or suspected in at least eight African countries.

The same report estimates that malaria caused about 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths worldwide in 2024.

At the same time, funding for malaria control remains far below global needs. The WHO’s World Malaria Report 2025 indicates that global funding reached $3.9 billion in 2024, only about 42% of the $9.3 billion target set for 2025.

The presence of an African scientist whose work directly informs global health policies highlights the growing importance of research priorities linked to the realities of the continent.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou