Prof Appolinary Kamuhabwa

Prof. Appolinary A. R. Kamuhabwa is a Professor of Pharmacology at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and the university's Vice Chancellor, a post he formally assumed in January 2024. He focuses on therapeutics and other pharmacological interventions in infectious and non-communicable diseases. His research of more than two decades covers cancer, HIV, malaria and cardiovascular disease. He has studied hypericin as a photodynamic agent for bladder cancer, lipid abnormalities in people with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy, and how pharmacogenetics affects lumefantrine pharmacokinetics and malaria treatment outcomes in pregnant women. More recent work covers hypertension, rheumatic heart disease, infective endocarditis, newborn screening for critical congenital heart disease, clinical pharmacy services, and the use of locally generated evidence to address Tanzania's rising burden of non-communicable diseases. He has also contributed to the Pf8 open dataset of Plasmodium falciparum genome variation. Since 2019 he has advised the MUHAS Sickle Cell Program, working in research and advocacy that has included high-level side meetings at the United Nations General Assembly. Prof. Kamuhabwa earned his Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1994. He then completed a master's degree, a PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He joined MUHAS as a Lecturer in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2016. Besides teaching and supervising postgraduate students, he has held several leadership roles at MUHAS. He was Director of Planning and Development from 2007 to 2015, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning, Finance and Administration from 2015 to 2017, Acting Vice Chancellor from 2017 to 2018, and Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic, Research and Consultancy from 2018 to 2023. During his term as Vice Chancellor, MUHAS has launched phase II of the East African Community Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences, and he has led the MUHAS delegation that signed an agreement with Kumamoto University in Japan. He sits on the Ministerial Advisory Board of the Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority, and his research has involved partners such as Management Sciences for Health, USAID and Sida.