Dr Toyin Togun MD MPH PhD FFPH
Associate Professor
United Kingdom
Affiliations:
- Clinical Research Department (CRD), Faculty of Infectious & Tropical Diseases
- Vaccines & Immunity Theme (VIT), MRC Unit The Gambia at the LSHTM
- LSHTM TB Centre
Toyin Togun is an Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK, and a senior scientist in the Vaccines & Immunity Theme of the LSHTM-MRC Unit in The Gambia, West Africa (MRCG at LSHTM). He is the Co-Director of the LSHTM Tuberculosis (TB) Centre - a global collaborative network of TB researchers harnessing diverse disciplinary expertise to end TB worldwide. He is also elected to Fellowship of the UK Faculty of Public Health – a joint faculty of the three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (London, Edinburgh and Glasgow).
He is a member of the Child and Adolescent TB Working Group of the World Health Organization (WHO), and a member of the College of Experts for the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF). He is also an Academic Editor of the PLOS Global Public Health journal.
Toyin had his medical training at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and he completed a Masters degree in Public Health in Developing Countries at the LSHTM. His MRC clinical PhD training was an immuno-epidemiological project in childhood TB that centred on the interface between clinical assessment, diagnostic algorithms and discovery of diagnostic biomarkers. He also completed a highly competitive Steinberg Global Health Postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. His postdoctoral research was centred on the validation of promising biomarkers in diverse settings, and on implementation research focusing on the practical considerations necessary for successful translation of research insights from discovery to practice and policy in the field.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Toyin Togun is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). His teaching, learning support and supervisory activities include:
- Co-Director & member of the programme management group of the Africa Health Research Doctoral Training Programme (CREATE)
- Member of the Governance Team, West Africa Networks of Excellence in TB, AIDS & Malaria (WANETAM)-TALENT Gender Sensitive PhD Fellowship programme
- The London Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) course
- IDM 502 (Tuberculosis) elective module
- Assessor to MSc, PG Diploma and PG Certificate in Infectious Diseases Board of Examiners.
Current trainees:
1. Dr. Victory Fabian Edem, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM & University of Ibadan, Nigeria - WANETAM Postdoctoral Fellow
2. Dr. Esin E. Nkereuwem, Clinical Research Department, LSHTM & MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM - Clinical Research Fellow
3. Dr. Sheila Agyeiwaa-Owusu, Clinical Research Department, LSHTM & MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM - PhD student
4. Dr. Madikoi Danso, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM - MSc student in Epidemiology (DL), University of London
Past trainees:
1. Dr Awa Ba Diallo, Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), Dakar, Senegal - WANETAM Postdoctoral Fellow (2019 - 2022)
Research
Toyin Togun's group conduct global health and implementation research that is centred on the discovery and practical applications of new tools and strategies to improve the diagnosis and management of tuberculosis (TB) in high burden settings, with particular interest in childhood TB.
Toyin is the Principal Investigator/Project Lead on a UKRI/MRC-Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) grant that aims to validate and refine a novel biosignature of paediatric TB and develop it toward clinical use as a non-sputum-based diagnostic test. He also led a UKRI/GCRF-funded project that has established a multi-country and interdisciplinary platform for clinical, epidemiological and applied health research on post-TB lung disease in children and adolescents in West Africa. This collaborative project has underpinning support by key regional and international research, policy and advocacy networks, including the West African Regional Network for TB Control (WARN-TB), West African Paediatric TB Network (WApTBNet), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), and the Lung Health Department of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (IUATLD).
In addition, Toyin is leading the childhood TB Work Package of the EDCTP-funded West African Networks of Excellence for TB, AIDS and Malaria (WANETAM), which is made up of 25 academic and research institutions in 12 West African countries and five institutions in four European countries. The childhood TB work package of the WANETAM consortium aims to improve the diagnosis and management of TB in children through the conduct of relevant multi-country and interdisciplinary research studies of drug susceptible- and drug resistant-TB within national health systems in West Africa.
Toyin's focus on global health research is at the intersection of social justice and equality. As such, he is very committed to the promotion of equitable leadership of global health research partnerships and in building capacity of early and mid-career researchers, in Africa in particular.
Key words: Childhood tuberculosis; Global health diagnostics; Immunoepidemiology; Implementation research; Equitable partnerships
Selected Publications
