Charles Narh

Dr. Charles Narh is a Research Fellow with the School of Medicine and IMPACT, Deakin University, having previously worked at Bio21 Institute (PhD, University of Melbourne), WEHI and Burnet Institute (Postdoc). He has over 10 years of experience in infectious diseases research, with highly cited research publications in malaria, mycobacterial diseases, COVID-19 and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). His research focus and expertise include fieldwork and clinical trials, development of molecular diagnostics tools, genomic surveillance and utilising population genetic approaches to inform Public Health control efforts and outbreak preparedness of malaria drug resistance, mycobacterial infections and SARS-CoV-2 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

His PhD research findings on the evolution of antimalarial resistance in Ghana, a malaria high-burden country in sub-Sahara Africa, has contributed to national policy changes in malaria control activities, and has been considerably translated across the West African subregion. He has three years of industry experience where he played lead roles in R&D teams at ZiP Diagnostics (a Biotech Start-up in Melbourne) that developed a novel CE-certified point-of-care COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 RNA) test kit. Dr. Narh has built a large clinical trials network in Ghana where he works with colleagues at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACBIP) and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), University of Ghana, to validate and implement diagnostic tools and control interventions for infectious diseases including COVID-19 and malaria.