Our Team

The STOP HBV team is working together to produce critical research evidence for clinicians, policymakers and pregnant women.

Maud Lemoine

Maud Lemoine (MD, MSc, PhD) is Professor of Hepatology at Imperial College London and Consultant Hepatologist at St Mary's Hospital, London, UK. She is also honorary researcher at the MRC@LSHTM Research Unit, in The Gambia.

She completed her medical degree, speciality training and PhD in Paris Sorbonne University, France before moving to Imperial as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in 2013. Her clinical interests and research expertise are in viral hepatitis and in metabolic liver disease. She is the chief investigator of numerous trials in this field.

For more a decade, she has been leading research activities on viral hepatitis and chronic liver disease in Africa and outside Africa.

She is a member of the WHO and EASL guideline development group for the management of hepatitis B. She has published extensively and serves as a scientific adviser of various scientific committees in Hepatology.

Chief Investigator

Gibril Ndow

Principal Investigator- The Gambia

Dr Gibril Ndow is the Director of Research for the Centre for Operational Research on Hepatitis B (COR-HEPB) at the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE). In this role, he leads an ambitious hepatitis B research portfolio across several low- and middle-income countries. He is focused on generating evidence to inform policy and programs to improve hepatitis B care and accelerate elimination efforts worldwide. Gibril also leads the Hepatitis Research Group at the MRC Unit, The Gambia at LSHTM. 

He holds a medical degree (MB ChB) from the University of The Gambia and a PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from Imperial College London.

Gibril is the country PI and lead for work package 1 in The Gambia

Work package 2: Patient and public engagement

Alexander Stockdale

Principal Investigator- Malawi

Dr Alexander Stockdale is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Liverpool and at Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme in Blantyre Malawi.

He trained in Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Liverpool in the UK, and has experience in clinical research in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. His research in the last 10 years has focused on hepatitis B in Africa through work in Malawi and as a founding member of HEPSANET (Hepatitis B in Africa Collaborative Network). He was a technical advisor to the WHO 2024 Hepatitis B guidelines and a member of the group of experts for the Africa CDC hepatitis B toolkit.

Alex is country PI and lead for work package 1 in Malawi.

Mary McCauley

 Dr Mary McCauley is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, and Associate Group Head for Women’s Health at Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust programme in Blantyre, Malawi. 

Within the STOP HBV programme, Dr McCauley will co-lead the community engagement work package and provide expertise in patient-centred study design, implementation science, and development of scalable interventions to prevent mother to child transmission of Hepatitis B.

Consultant Obstetrician

Marie Gomez

Midwife, Young Gambian Mum's Fund- The Gambia

Marie Gomez is a seasoned healthcare professional and public health leader with nearly 20 years of experience in The Gambia’s health sector. A State Registered Nurse, she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and Midwifery, a Postgraduate Diploma in Management, and an MBA in International Healthcare Management. She serves as Programme Manager at the Ministry of Health, providing strategic and technical leadership for nationwide TB and leprosy interventions. Her expertise spans clinical care, maternal and reproductive health, programme design, community engagement and outreach, resource mobilization, and stakeholder engagement, positioning her as a key driver of sustainable national healthcare development.

Godfrey Banda

PAWEM- Malawi

I am a community ally, having worked very closely with affected communities in my country to ensure mothers receive the care they need and babies are born free of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis in Malawi.

Patient organisation PAWEM: https://www.pawem.org

Work package 3: Health systems

Blessings Kapumba

Blessings M. Kapumba is a Senior Social Science researcher at MLW and LSTM, based in Malawi. His research interests include community engagement and involvement, research ethics in global health, health policy on sexual reproductive health, decolonisation of global health research, infectious disease control, mental health, and implementation science.

Blessings will co-lead work package 3.

Senior Social Scientist

Julie Balen

Professor of Health Systems

I am an established academic and research leader with over 20 years of experience in the field of global public health. My research is centred on strengthening health systems and improving health outcomes in selected resource-limited settings, through the design, integration and scale-up of new policies, system-wide changes, and innovations in health services and health technologies.

In my research, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach, leveraging mixed-methods and participatory approaches to ensure that solutions are evidence-based, contextually relevant and sustainable. A key priority of my work is advancing health equity and inclusion, whereby health service provision is accessible to all, regardless of socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, ability or geographic location.

I have worked in and with many Higher Education Institutions across Europe, Australia, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and I have long standing partnerships with teams in Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia.

Julie will co-lead work package 3.

Alinane Linda Nyondo-Mipando

Jess is a senior director at the world hepatitis alliance and has extensive experience in patient advocacy and community engagement for hepatitis B.
The World Hepatitis Alliance is an international network of over 400 organisations in 120 countries working together for the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030.

Patient and public Involvement and Engagement Lead

Bertha Maseko is a Registered Nurse-Midwife and Public Health Scientist currently undertaking doctoral training, with extensive experience in managing clinical trials and implementation science research in Malawi. She has a strong interest in Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) in health research and service delivery.

 She currently supports Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) activities within maternal and neonatal health Programmes, ensuring that patients, communities, and the public are meaningfully engaged throughout the research process and in healthcare decision-making.

 Bertha is passionate about becoming a leader in Community Engagement and Involvement. She envisions a future where communities are recognised as equal partners in identifying research priorities, co-designing and implementing interventions, evaluating their impact, and disseminating findings to ensure research addresses local needs while contributing to regional and global health improvements.

Work package 4: Cost effectiveness and modelling

Shevanthi Nayagam

Dr Shevanthi Nayagam is a Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist in the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. Her interdisciplinary research bridges clinical research, epidemiology, disease modelling and health economics to inform public health policy for the elimination of viral hepatitis, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries.

She founded and leads the Imperial College Viral Hepatitis Applied Modelling Group. She is the Principal Investigator of the multi-country IMPACT-B study, evaluating the effectiveness of hepatitis B birth dose vaccination in Africa, and leads the hepatitis B model within the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium. For over a decade, she has supported the World Health Organization in a range of advisory roles, including guideline development, and currently serves on the WHO South-East Asia Regional Validation Committee for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. She also works closely with ministries of health across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to support the development and implementation of national hepatitis strategies.

Shevanthi will co-lead work package 4.

Clinical Associate Professor

Work package 1: Clinical effectiveness

Lucky Ngwira

Dr Lucky Ngwira is a senior research fellow at the Health Economics and Policy Unit in Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Blantyre, Malawi.

Lucky has over 10years of international and senior-level experience, specializing in economic evaluation of health interventions, patient-reported outcome measures, and health financing. Key contribution includes co-leading Malawi’s HTA institutionalization taskforce, supporting development of Health Financing Strategy (2023-2030), and fostering collaboration across policymakers, academics, and development partners.

He will co-lead work package 4.

Senior Research Fellow

Jessica Hicks

Dr Nyondo-Mipando is a health systems specialist and a Nurse/Midwife by profession with research interests in optimizing delivery and uptake of services including quality management and Implementation Science.  Her areas of focus are HIV and AIDS across different populations and Maternal and Newborn Health.

Assistant Professor of Midwifery

Cross-cutting

Grants Officer

Francesca Pfiffer

Francesca is Project Manager of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems at Imperial College London, a multi-site interdisciplinary research group evaluating and optimising advanced digital diagnostics through linked studies in six African countries. She also manages the Digital Diagnostics for Africa Network, an international multidisciplinary group of experts with members based in Europe, Africa and United States building a conducive environment for the implementation of advanced molecular digital diagnostics in African healthcare settings. Before joining Imperial College, Francesca worked at the University of Cambridge where she coordinated an NIHR Programme focused on developing novel technologies to improve the brain injury care pathway and worked closely with patients and carers for identifying gaps and unmet needs through qualitative research methods. 

Ruth Thauzeni

Project Manager

Statistician

Asimenye brings +18 years of experience of working within Grants and Finance Department and Multiple Donors. Her primary role currently involves End to End Grants Management for MLW. From initial award stages through to close-out, audits, and institutional due diligence.

Currently serves as Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) Technical Working Group as Grantee Representative with Science for Africa - SFA. Recipient of 2025 NIHR Research Managers Travel Grant and has won +4 other funder Travel grants to participate in Grants Management and Budgeting plus Contract Management (EDCTP, MRC, AAS, SFA and NIH)

Asimenye will provide overall oversight to the grant’s officers managing the grant.

Marc Henrion

Marc Henrion is a Senior Statistician at MLW and lead statistician for this project. He originally trained in Mathematics at Imperial College London, then completed a PhD on statistical pattern recognition applied to digital sky surveys.

For his postdoctoral research, undertaken at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, he worked with similar statistical techniques, but changed domain to genetics and genomic science, working in genetic epidemiology.

Since 2017, he has been based in Malawi, at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Programme, where he set-up and is leading the Statistical Support Unit – shortly to restructure into a more general Data Science and Computationally Modelling Unit.

Head of Grants at MLW

Ruth Thauzeni is a Senior Post Award Grants Officer with over eight years of experience leading the financial management, compliance, and governance of complex donor-funded grants. She partners with researchers, project teams, and senior leadership to deliver strategic financial oversight, strengthen accountability, and ensure compliance with international donor requirements. Ruth is passionate about transforming financial data into meaningful insights that drive informed decision-making and maximize project impact.

Onesta Mandala

Grants professional based at MLW with 6+ years’ experience of managing grants including NIHR projects in the non-profit sector, supported by a public sector audit background. Skilled in process improvement and strengthening financial and internal control systems.

Grants Officer

Senior Director, World Hepatitis Alliance

Bertha Maseko

Isabelle Bough

Research Fellow

Dr Isabelle Bough is a gastroenterology registrar based in Glasgow, Scotland. She has a keen interest in hepatology, and as part of the STOP-HBV team is dedicated to developing educational materials and supporting community engagement.

Bakary Dibba

PhD candidate- The Gambia

Bakary Dibba is a Public Health Researcher and Clinical Research Coordinator at the MRCG at LSHTM. He is currently undertaking a PhD at Imperial College London, focusing on strengthening the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B in The Gambia. His research interests include viral hepatitis elimination, implementation science, health systems strengthening, maternal and child health, and translating research evidence into policy and practice.

He will lead the implementation of the Gambia component of Work Package 1, which forms part of his PhD research and focuses on generating evidence to strengthen hepatitis B prevention and care. In addition to his research responsibilities, He will supports the implementation of activities across the wider STOP-HBV programme in The Gambia, working with partners, the Ministry of Health, and local, international stakeholders to facilitate project delivery, stakeholder engagement, and coordination across work packages.

Asimenye Kayuni