Dr. Erisa Mwaka is an orthopaedic surgeon, academician and bioethicist. He holds a Bachelors of Medicine and Bachelors of Surgery (Makerere University, Uganda), Master of Medicine (Makerere University, Uganda), Master of Social Sciences in Health Research Ethics (University of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa) and PhD (Fukui University, Japan). He is a senior lecturer of Human Anatomy at the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, and chairs the Makerere University School of Biomedical Sciences Higher Degrees and Research Ethics Committee. He is a member of the bioethics working group at Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) and Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS); and faculty to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Forgarty funded International Health Research Ethics Training (IHRET) program at Makerere College of Health Sciences. His has research interest in ELSI of biobank and genomic research, spine disorders, bone health in HIV, occupational health, human anatomy, and medical education. He is an H3 Africa principal investigator investigating the Ethical and Societal Issues in informed consent processes in genomic research in Uganda. He is member to the H3 Africa Ethics and Community Engagement working group. He has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
April 4, 2018
IFGeneRA OVERALL Component The Individual Findings in Genetics Research in Africa (IFGeneRA) H3Africa ELSI Collaborative Centre aims to progressively build an evidence base that forms the basis for context- and country specific development of policies relating to the return of individual genetic research results for African genomic research,
April 4, 2018
HI-GENES Africa Project Summary/Abstract Despite a large number of identified genes, only GJB2 and GJB6 have been systematically studied in sub-Saharan Africans, for which prevalence of NSHI-causal variants is close to zero and we estimate known NSHI genes only explain ~4.1% of autosomal recessive (AR) NSHI in African-Americans.
April 4, 2018
The goal of this multisite, collaborative project is to identify genes responsible for schizophrenia in the Xhosa population of South Africa. The vast majority of the genetic basis for schizophrenia has yet to be explained. Strong evidence suggests that individually rare, severely deleterious mutations are responsible for a substantial portion of cases.
April 4, 2018
Head, Division of Human Genetics and Director of the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Research Unit, University of Cape Town
April 4, 2018
This collaborative project, between Emory University in the USA and the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, proposes to investigate biological mechanisms underlying the transgenerational effects of exposure to prenatal maternal psychological stress, anxiety, or depression. We propose to examine