Dr. AGBLA J. M. Michel Ebénézer is an Inspector of Sanitary Actions at the National Public Health Laboratory / Ministry of Health (NPHL/MoH) in Benin, since 2007. He attained his PhD (Microbiology-Molecular Biology and Genomics) in November 2021, at the Doctoral School (Life & Earth Sciences), University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin. Dr. Agbla has worked on rotavirus epidemiology in Cotonou for the past decade, and is responsible for the coordination of the biological components and data management of enteric viruses’ surveillance within the National Public Health Laboratory / Ministry of Health-Benin, which is also a WHO/AFRO rotavirus network laboratory. As part his PhD, he worked primarily on rotavirus genomics in collaboration with the Viral Gastroenteritis Branch, Division of Viral Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, United States (NCIRD, CDC/USA). He has four research outputs, three of them as the first author. Please click this link.

In January 2023, Dr. Agbla was appointed for a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of the Free State-Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit, South Africa under the Supervision of Prof. Martin Nyaga. Within the UFS-NGS Unit, Dr. Agbla is undertaking molecular based research on enteric viruses. His roles include designing projects, writing proposals and applying for third-stream funding to expand on the scope of the Unit. Dr. Agbla is committed to providing valuable support in organizing and participating in relevant workshops and conferences affiliated with the UFS-NGS unit. As a post-doctoral fellow, he is committed to enrolling in internal and external training courses to acquire and enhance his knowledge on molecular virology and bioinformatics. While demonstrating leadership in activities entrusted to him by his supervisor, he commits to producing regular activity reports and organizing feedback sessions on a weekly basis.

Ultimately, he is committed to the UFS-NGS Unit’s values (teamwork and cohesion, service excellence, transformation, and integrity) which will be his leitmotif throughout his research career.