The Institute’s UJMT LAUNCH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship program celebrates two outstanding alumni whose NIH‑supported research is advancing global health science and strengthening the next generation of international investigators.
Alex Kayongo Awarded NIH K43 Emerging Global Leader Award
Alex Kayongo, MBChB, MSc–a Fogarty-trained immunologist (2016-2017/UJMT Fellow) and global health researcher at Makerere University in Uganda—received the prestigious NIH K43 Emerging Global Leader Award to advance his work on airway microbiome–immune interactions in HIV‑associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Kayongo leads the Airway Microbiome–Immune Crosstalk Lab (AMIC‑Lab), where he uses bronchoscopic sampling and multi‑omics approaches to study chronic lung inflammation among Ugandans living with HIV. His K43 project, “Clonotyping Airway T‑cells to Uncover Microbiome‑Specific Inflammotypes in HIV‑associated COPD,” will build the first clonotypic library of microbiome‑specific CD4+ T‑cell responses in a rural Ugandan cohort.
Kayongo is a Makerere University College of Health Sciences graduate, a former Yale University research fellow in HIV genetics and microbial pathogenesis, and a J‑1 global health scholar at Western Connecticut Health Network.
Shay Slifko Receives NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship
Shay Slifko, MPH–a former program manager for the Office of Global Health Education, a UJMT U.S. Predoctoral Fellow (2023–2024) and now PhD candidate at the Tulane University School of Public Health—has been awarded an NIH Fogarty F31 Fellowship to investigate antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among postpartum women living with HIV in South Africa. Her project is “Adherence to option B+ antiretroviral treatment and associated factors during pregnancy and postpartum in a South Africa clinical setting.”
Building on her prior NIH D43 Fogarty Global Research Fellowship at the University of the Witwatersrand, Slifko’s study examines how intimate partner violence disrupts ART adherence during the transition from pregnancy to early motherhood. The project integrates hair‑based drug level assays, viral load monitoring, and qualitative interviews to generate the first longitudinal profile of postpartum adherence up to 15 months after childbirth. Findings will inform targeted interventions to strengthen prevention of mother‑to‑child transmission programs and improve maternal HIV care in high‑burden settings.
Since 2012, the UJMT Consortium—led by the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Tulane University—has provided mentored global health research training through support from the NIH Fogarty International Center. Alumni like Kayongo and Slifko exemplify the program’s mission to cultivate scientific leaders equipped to address urgent global health challenges.