Sir Peter Barter visits IMR | Minister launches broadband | PNGIMR delegation visit NARI | Directors directions | EPO project update | Update on PCV project | IMR Goroka get training on DMSys | Staff attend workshop in Malasia | New Staff | Students complete honours | This quater in picture | Gone for studies | Five staff graduate from DWU | Social Research Cadetship program | Malawi HIV/AIDS delegation visit Goroka | Message of Hib vaccie to PNG | Don Lewis revisits PNGIMR | Information for health workers for Hib vaccine | Dual visit Professor M J Cardosa's lab | Michael Alpers library news | IMR women celebrate IWD

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GONE FOR STUDIES

Scientific officer Ms Janet Gare is now in Basel, Switzerland doing her Masters at the Swiss Tropical Institute, which is part of the University of Basel.

Scientific Officer Ms Janet Gare is currently in Switzerland doing her masters in ‘Infectious Diseases Epidemiology’

The quietly spoken Eastern Highlander left the country last year (2006) in October to pursue her masters in ‘Infectious Diseases Epidemiology.’

Her study is sponsored by the Swiss Tropical Institute and she is the first person in PNGIMR to be awarded the scholarship.

PNGIMR and the Swiss Tropical Institute have a long relationship where staff and students from the Swiss Tropical Institute have come to PNGIMR to work.

One of these was Dr Ingrid Felger who used to be a staff at PNGIMR Madang.

She worked with the Molecular Diagnosis and developed the test for HIV drug resistance.

Ms Gare has gone to Switzerland to also study this technology as it would be useful in Papua New Guinea in the near future.

Ms Gare had graduated with a Bachelors degree in Science (Biology) in 2002 at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby and had been working for PNGIMR since then.

She was attached to the Microbiology Unit now the Infection & Immunity Unit and worked on the Meningitis Study for less than a year and in 2003 she moved to work with the HIV/STI projects.

Before going to Switzerland her role in the HIV/STI projects was to carry out laboratory tests on human samples (urine and vaginal swabs) that were brought in from the field studies.

Ms Gare would like to thank the PNGIMR and the Swiss Tropical Institute for making it possible for her to pursue her masters.

“I would say PNGIMR is the place where you get advanced training in the field of medical research locally, and it also sets you to meet international standards,” said Ms Gare

She added that it was a privilege for her to work for a Medical Institution whose research work is comparable to the world standard and many of its research work has been translated to health policies in Papua New Guinea.

“I look forward in being involved in medical research that would improve the well-being of Papua New Guineans now and in the future,” said Ms Gare.