Overview
Dr. Wendy O’Meara is a Professor of Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, a visiting professor at Moi University, and the Deputy Director of the Duke Global Health Institute. She divides her time between the US and Kenya.
Dr. O’Meara has dedicated the last 20 years to community-based approaches for malaria treatment and prevention in East Africa. Her team’s work focuses on expanding access to accurate diagnosis and treatment, mapping silent reservoirs of transmission using parasite genetic signatures, and tackling emerging threats to malaria control in vulnerable populations. She serves on the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts for the Africa CDC and is an advocate for data justice and equitable data governance in global research.
Dr. O’Meara completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT. She then joined Fogarty International Center at the NIH to apply her quantitative and modeling skills to vector borne diseases. Her collaboration with KEMRI-Wellcome Trust using hospital surveillance data to understand malaria transmission led her to Kenya in 2007. The collaborative research program built with colleagues at Moi University is based in Eldoret, Kenya with hubs in western and northern Kenya. The team works closely with county health teams and frequently advises the Division of National Malaria Control.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
The Crucial Role of Rapid Point-of-Care Tests for Malaria in Improving Fever Management.
Journal Article JAMA · October 15, 2024 Full text Link to item CiteRelationship between malaria vector survival, infectivity and insecticide treated net use in western Kenya.
Journal Article Res Sq · March 18, 2024 BACKGROUND: Much effort and resources have been invested to control malaria transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it remains a major public health problem. For the disease to be transmitted from one person to another, the female Anopheles vector must sur ... Full text Link to item Citebistro: An R package for vector bloodmeal identification by short tandem repeat overlap.
Journal Article Methods Ecol Evol · February 2024 Measuring vector-human contact in a natural setting can inform precise targeting of interventions to interrupt transmission of vector-borne diseases. One approach is to directly match human DNA in vector bloodmeals to the individuals who were bitten using ... Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
Once Bitten: Acquisition of Malaria Adaptive Immunity (OBAMA - Immunity)
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2023 - 2028Synthesizing immunoinformatics and genetic epidemiology to identify signatures of natural functional immunity to malaria parasites
ResearchMentor · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2023 - 2028PEARL - Phase II
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation · 2023 - 2026View All Grants