Rate My Professor Amed Ouattara

Amed Ouattara is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Malaria Research within the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, Department of Medicine, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. Holding a PharmD from the University of Bamako, Mali, an MSc in medical parasitology completed in Mali and France in 2002, and a PhD in Molecular Epidemiology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2012, Dr. Ouattara began his career in malaria research in 1999 while pursuing his pharmacy doctorate in Mali. Originally from Burkina Faso, he was motivated by the devastating impact of malaria on children in West Africa. He joined the University of Maryland Baltimore in 2005 for his PhD training, followed by postdoctoral positions at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland, before assuming his current faculty role in 2015.

Dr. Ouattara's research centers on molecular epidemiology, population genetics, and the design of next-generation malaria vaccines. He utilizes diversity-covering strategies to create multivalent vaccines that account for polymorphisms across Plasmodium falciparum alleles, employing a reverse vaccinology approach to prioritize vaccine antigen candidates and variants based on their genetic diversity and prevalence in malaria-endemic regions. His work also involves evaluating strain-specific efficacy in vaccine trials and monitoring for the emergence of vaccine-resistant parasites. As Director of the Molecular Epidemiology course at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and team leader of the Malaria Preclinical Vaccine Development Unit, he contributes to training future researchers and conducting rigorous preclinical evaluations of novel antigens, adjuvants, and vaccines through assays such as liver stage development, growth inhibition, and membrane feeding. Notable publications include "Designing malaria vaccines to circumvent antigen variability" (Vaccine, 2015), "Vaccines against Malaria" (Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2015), "Molecular Basis of Strain-Specific Efficacy of a Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine: Vaccine Development Implications" (Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2013), and contributions to the landmark "A Field Trial to Assess a Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine" (New England Journal of Medicine, 2011). With 91 publications and more than 2,700 citations, his research has profoundly influenced strategies for overcoming antigen variability in malaria vaccine development.