Morrison Oliver Jusu

Host institution : College of Medicine and Allied Health Science (CoMAHS), Sierra Leone

Project title: Investigating the levels and functions of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs) in Placental and Congenital Malaria.

Biography:

Morrison Oliver Jusu is a 2019 Commonwealth Shared Scholar and a current MARCAD PhD Research Fellow at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), University of Sierra Leone (USL), with his research focused on malaria in pregnancy.

As a health professional, Morrison holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honors, (B. Pharm Hons) from the University of SierraLeone and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Leeds (UK) with demonstrated expertise in research and clinical trials as well as in implementing public health programs. Graduating as a first-class student and at the top of his cohort in 2013, Morrison has over a decade of experience working with multidisciplinary teams in health interventions such as immunization, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria control, emergency response, etc.

In his previous roles as Study Pharmacist and Pharmacy Manager at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), respectively, Morrison supervised and provided oversight to a 15-man team comprising pharmacists and cold chain personnel with responsibility of making forecasts, receipt, handling, storage, distribution, and dispensing pharmaceutical commodities including investigational products for STRIVE, EBOVAC-1, and PREVAC clinical trials testing the efficacy and immunogenicity of candidate Ebola vaccines in Sierra Leone.

Also, as an EPI Mentor with ICAP Columbia University in Sierra Leone, Morrison contributed immensely to the nationwide rollout of Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) in Sierra Leone in 2018 by working closely with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to train and monitor IPTi implementers across the country. Morrison worked closely with district immunization officers to assess data to guide EPI activities; providing supportive supervision to selected PHU staff and supporting them to implement facility-based quality improvement (QI) interventions to improve EPI services in Sierra Leone.

Since October 2020, until starting his PhD Research in December 2023, Morrison has been supporting clinical trial sites in the capacity as a consultant Clinical Research Associate (CRA), with a scope that cuts across all sectors in clinical trials, and supported projects in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Rwanda (conducting vaccine development studies against Ebola, Covid-19, and Lassa Fever) to ensure that all components of clinical studies conduct their activities following the approved study protocols, Good Clinical Practice (GCP), and other applicable ethical and regulatory guidelines, as well as with the sites’ standard operating procedures (SOPs). 

In addition to being a PhD Research Fellow, Morrison also supports faculty as an Associate Lecturer II, in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at COMAHS, University of Sierra Leone.

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