Congratulations to ITM alumnus Placide Mbala (INRB) for being named one of Nature 10's most influential people in science for 2024!

Congratulations to ITM alumnus Placide Mbala for being named one of Nature 10's most influential people in science for 2024! Placide is working as a researcher at INRB, Institut Nationale de Recherche Biomédicale, Kinshasa, DRC. 

Placide played a key role in identifying the mutated strain behind this year’s Mpox Clade Ib outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond. His team’s quick action in recognising the unique nature and transmission of the virus helped alert national and international health officials to the threat. He obtained his MSc in Disease Control from ITM in 2016. His thesis focused on the evaluation of the epidemiological surveillance system of monkeypox in DRC.

This is the second year in a row that an ITM alumnus has made it into Nature's 10! Last year, Halidou Tinto was recognised for his revolutionary contributions to malaria vaccine development: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03928-0. 

A huge congratulations to Placide on this recognition! 

Read more about his impactful work: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03900-6