The ReAct Toolbox Advisory Group

The ReAct Toolbox Advisory Group provides strategic and scientific advice for ReAct's work on the Toolbox. The Advisory Group is composed of renowned experts on antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases, and come from a variety of professional backgrounds and geographic locations.

The advisory group members are invited to share their views about specific Toolbox focus areas, and to highlight key developments in policy and medical practice to assist ReAct in keeping the Toolbox up to date and continuously improve content. They also act as ambassadors of the Toolbox.

Advisory group members

The advisory group is currently composed of the following members (in alphabetical order):

Professor Alistair Boxall, PhD

• Alistair is Professor in Environmental Science in the Environment Department at the University of York and Director of the NERC-funded ECORISC Centre for Doctoral Training.
• Alistair’s research focuses on understanding emerging and future ecological and health risks posed by human and veterinary medicines  in the natural environment. Alistair is a past member of the Defra Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances and past Chair of the Pharmaceutical Advisory Group of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. He regularly advises national and international organisations on issues relating to chemical impacts on the environment and has published extensively on the detection, fate, effects and risks of emerging contaminants in the natural environment.
• Alistair was co-ordinator of the CAPACITIE project, a 3.5M Euro project on pollution monitoring in cities and academic co-ordinator of the 10.3 M Euro iPiE project on intelligent assessment of pharmaceuticals in the environment, he directed the York City Environment Observatory Initiative.
• He co-led the Global Pharmaceutical Monitoring Project which monitored concentrations of pharmaceuticals in more than 200 river systems covering 102 countries and which received the THE 2022 award for International Collaboration of the Year. He received the 2016 Recipharm International Environmental Award for his work on the impacts of chemical contaminants on the environment and was identified as 2018 Highly Cited Researcher in the Agricultural Sciences sector.

Dr. Esmita Charani, PhD, MPharm, MRPSGB

• Esmita is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town where she is undertaking a Wellcome Trust Fellowship investigating intersectionality and AMR.
• In the UK, she is a Reader in AMR and Global Health at the University of Liverpool. She is a visiting Researcher at Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen Norway, and Adjunct Professor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kerala India, where she is involved in helping implement and investigate national antibiotic stewardship programmes.
• Her work in AMR has been recognised through the Academy of Medical Sciences UK-India AMR Visiting Professor award. She is an expert advisor to the Commonwealth Pharmacy Association and a Global Health Fellow with the Office of Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, England.
• She is involved in mentoring and supporting clinical pharmacists across different healthcare settings and economies in implementing antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Her doctoral thesis investigated antimicrobial stewardship across India, Norway, France, Burkina Faso and England

Dr. Arshnee Moodley, PhD

• Arshnee is a microbiologist working on AMR in food producing and companion animals for almost 20 years.
• She is the leader of the CGIAR Antimicrobial Resistance Hub and AMR Team leader at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. She is also jointly appointed as an Associate Professor at the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Her research focuses on drivers of antimicrobial use, selection and spread of AMR, and identifying context relevant AMU reducing interventions in small holder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She also has a keen interest in building technical AMR capacity and has established a state of the art AMR laboratory at the ILRI Nairobi campus and works closely with EUCAST Development lab.

Professor Rumina Hasan, MBBS, PhD, FRCPath

• Dr. Hasan is a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist and Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Aga Khan University, Karachi, and an Honorary Professor at the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. Her areas of interest include tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance.
• She has served as Vice Chair of the Global Laboratory Initiative (2012-2014) and member of New Diagnostic Working Group (2011-2014).
• She is currently the Chairperson of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Green Light Committee (RGLC). Dr. Hasan also served on the WHO Strategic Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (STAG-AMR) 2017-2020.

Dr. Francis J Ndowa, MD

• Dr. Ndowa is based in Zimbabwe and is a specialist in Venereology and Dermatology. He is an international consultant on surveillance and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and on antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
• He is the current Regional Director of the Africa and Middle East and North Africa Branch of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI Africa-MENA).
• He is a member of the Scientific & Technical Advisory Group of WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH), Geneva.
• He is co-Director and Specialist Physician at the Skin and GU Medicine Clinic, a private clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe.
• Dr. Ndowa has worked in the World Health Organization, Geneva, on the prevention and control of STIs, including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and he has international experience in public health on STI prevention and control. He also previously worked on management of chest diseases, rheumatology and dermatology in the UK and Zimbabwe.

Dr. Uduak Okomo, MD, PhD

• Dr. Okomo is a Clinical Research Fellow in Maternal and Newborn Health within the Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
• A paediatrician and epidemiologist by training, her research focuses on maternal and neonatal health and includes studies on the aetiology, transmission and management of serious infections, antimicrobial resistance, and stillbirths.
• Another focus of Dr. Okomo is implementation research and the use of routine healthcare data to improve quality of facility-based care. Her objective is to improve maternal, newborn and child health in sub-Saharan Africa through engagement in research aimed at informing health policy.
• She is a visiting Consultant Paediatrician to the National Teaching Hospital and visiting lecturer in paediatrics at the School of Medicine & Allied Health Sciences, University of The Gambia. She is Chairperson of The Gambia Chapter of the West African College of Physicians and a Vice President of The College.
• Dr. Okomo is also a member of the MRC Gambia Women in Science Working Group and helps to facilitate the advancement of young girls in biomedical and clinical research careers through public engagement activities, and as a mentor to young African scientists across the region.

Professor Yonghong Xiao, MD, PhD

• Professor Xiao is Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis & Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine Zhejiang University, China. He is the founder and leader of the Chinese Ministry of Health National Antimicrobial Resistance Investigation Net (Mohnarin), and a member of the National Committee for Drug Rational Use of China.
• Professor Xiao earned his MD in 1985 and his PhD in 1994. His area of expertise lies in infectious disease, basic and clinical research in antimicrobial agents, bacterial resistance surveillance and mechanisms, clinical pharmacology and rational use of antibiotics.
• He has completed more than 20 national funded studies and over 50 clinical trials of new antimicrobial agents. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and 30 books, and has been a member of over 20 societies, an editor and reviewer of a number of journals.

Membership

• The advisory group is composed of prominent experts within the field of antibiotic resistance. They come from a variety of professional backgrounds and geographic locations, to reflect the diverse settings and work that ReAct is carrying out.
• The advisory group provides advice and suggestions to ReAct, but are not asked to endorse the content of the Toolbox nor do they see the content before it is published. Responsibility for the final Toolbox content rests entirely with ReAct.
• Advisory group members are proposed by ReAct staff based on their expertise within specific areas related to antibiotic resistance and are approved by the ReAct Global Leadership Group.
• Members are appointed on a pro-bono basis for a two-year term with the option of renewal.
• Upon accepting the commitment, advisory group members must declare any conflict of interest, such as receiving financial remuneration from the pharmaceutical industry.
• Advisory Group members also act as ambassadors of the Toolbox, sharing and spreading it within their networks.