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UNC Project-Malawi honors beloved former lab director with new center

June 9, 2009 -- UNC has just opened a new malaria vaccine research center at the Area 18 Health Center in Lilongwe, Malawi and named it the George Joaki Centre. The research center will be used for an international malaria vaccine trial, the first of its kind, which is due to launch in July 2009.

The following tribute to Dr. Joaki was written by his colleagues in Malawi.

A dedicatory plaque graces the new George Joaki Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi

George Joaki, MD, the laboratory director of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Project in Lilongwe, Malawi passed away tragically on October 18, 2007. George was a graduate of the Malawi College of Medicine and received postgraduate fellowship training in immunology and microbiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

George was the UNC Project lab director from 2002-2007. He was the visionary overseer of a lab that started with two technicians, a small lab space and minimum assay capacity. Today this state-of-the-art research and clinical monitoring lab has fifteen technicians, four supervisors and five large lab areas and performs over 20 assays (including molecular amplification and cell separation capability), all in support of over twenty research investigations and thousands of HIV positive and at-risk patients receiving clinical care.

George was a quiet leader who led by example. He was a steadying force. He was always ready to lend a helping hand to other labs in southern Africa. His leadership was directly responsible for the UNC Project lab's recognition as one of the best of its kind in the world.

George left much behind. Not only his family and friends in Malawi, but also, through his work with the NIH DAIDS networks and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many friends and colleagues from all corners of the globe.

He will be missed by all who knew him. His legacy lives on in the spirit of teamwork that his staff at the UNC Project display every day.

For more information on UNC Project-Malawi, please click here.

Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719 or lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu.