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Leadership

The secret to the success of our laboratory is to adhere to high standards throughout and focus on the customer.
Prof Halidou TINTO
His research activity focused on malaria parasite biology is currently oriented towards the epidemiology of the parasite resistance. He has been involved in many projects for the 20 past years in this topic. He mainly worked in the field of malaria treatment in children and more recently in the prevention/treatment of malaria in pregnant women.
1998 - 2000 Research associate
Centre Muraz, Burkina Faso

Pharm D by background, he worked as research associate in charge of the surveillance of drug resistance at Centre Muraz, Burkina Faso.

2000 Research fellow
Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Denmark

He worked in the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Denmark as Research fellow in Development of alternative medicine against malaria.

2001 Research associate
IRSS

He has been recruited as research associate at the Institute for Health Research (IRSS) and seconded in Centre Muraz.

2003-2006 PhD fellow
ITM, Belgium

 He worked as PhD fellow in Medical Sciences at ITM, Belgium, where he worked on the epidemiology of malaria drug resistance in Burkina Faso and the mechanism of the resistance in Rwanda.

2006
CRUN

After obtaining his PhD in 2006, he went back in Burkina Faso, where he contributed to create the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) in 2009. Since the year 2006, he successfully conducted (as principal investigator or co-investigator) several phase I/II, III and IV clinical trials. Under his leadership as the head of the unit, the CRUN has successfully conducted more than 30 trials including the GSK RTS,S phase 3 malaria vaccine trial.

2013 - 2014 Scientific director
Centre Muraz

He was appointed as the scientific director of Centre Muraz

2016 - Current Regional director
The Institute for Health Sciences Research for the center-west region in Nanoro

From 2016 he has been graduated as Professor in Parasitology associated attached at the University Nazi Boni of Bobo-Dioulasso where he teach the modules of ‘’Clinical trials’’ and the ‘’Control of parasitic diseases’’. He was  also appointed as the regional director of the Institute for Health Sciences Research for the center-west region in Nanoro.

2021 Sub Label
Best Scientist of the Year 2021 Award

Prof Halidou TINTO
was awarded the "Best Scientist of the Year 2021 Award" by the International Achievements Research Center based in Canada

Head of Unit message

The epidemiology of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is changing, and this is partly explained by the major increasing in mobilization of funding and at the scaling up of interventions such as the deployment of artemisinin-based combinations (ACT) or long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN). The opportunities for the development of new drugs and vaccines for malaria control look brighter now than 10 years ago. However, despite these early successes it is still unclear how this trend will be maintained and what new tools are needed for the (almost) complete elimination of malaria as a public health problem.
Though there are increasing reports of dramatic declines in the burden of malaria in a number of countries, its burden is still high in some areas such as Burkina Faso. In this specific context, it is extremely important to establish the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of new interventions. Nevertheless, there are few places in Africa with the necessary infrastructure and expertise where such research can be carried out at the international quality standards required. More in general, very few African research institutions, even if they have carried out GCP-compliant clinical trials in the past, have been able to maintain over time the required infrastructure and expertise as these have often been linked to specific projects with limited funding.
 
Obviously, this has a major impact on the ability of a truly local institution/unit with competent local investigators to compete for international funds. This situation is even worse in Francophone countries where, very few institutions have the required capacity. In this context there is need for establishing and sustaining clinical research centers with capacity to conduct Good Clinical Practice (GCP) – compliant clinical trials for the timely evaluation of new products and interventions. The recognition of this need led to the creation of the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) in April 2009 as a center to contribute increasing the research capacity in Africa and hence the potential of testing new interventions in the environment where they will be eventually deployed. Our main objective is to develop and maintain over time a good expertise and infrastructure ensuring high quality training and clinical research.
Prof Halidou TINTO
PharmD, Msc, PhD
Head of the CRUN