Dr. Yanis Ben Amor

Dr. Yanis Ben Amor is an associate research scientist at the Earth Institute and the Director of the HIV/AIDS and TB Initiative at the Millennium Villages Project. Dr. Ben Amor is also the Director of the Tropical Laboratory Initiative and is currently investigating the critical role of new diagnostics in the control of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in developing countries. Dr. Ben Amor is responsible for the successful implementation of laboratories within the Millennium Villages (either at the health facility level or the district hospital level). His tuberculosis-related research is focused on finding ways to improve the diagnosis of tuberculosis in developing countries and decrease patients lost to follow up during treatment. His HIV/AIDS related research revolves around the optimum time for HIV retesting during pregnancy for early diagnosis of seroconversion. Dr. Ben Amor analyzes new, rapid diagnostic tools being investigated and develops ways to allow their implementation in resource-poor settings, where electricity and clean water can be limiting factors. As part of his work with the Millennium Villages Project, Yanis is also developing a point-of-care diagnostic toolkit for community health workers based on existing tests to diagnose diseases such as malaria, syphilis and HIV infection. This toolkit will be appropriate for each site of the project based on the level of education and intervention of CHWs as well as the immediate needs in terms of infectious disease control and nutrition.

Dr. Ben Amor has close to a decade of research experience in tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS all over the world. He was involved in many projects conducting research on new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis as well as improving quality of care and access to tuberculosis treatment for patients in developing countries and has previously worked for several organizations such as the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) and the Public Health Research Institute (Newark, New Jersey). Dr. Ben Amor has a PhD in Molecular Biology, and a Masters in the same discipline from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes (Rennes, France). He has published widely in the areas of tuberculosis diagnosis, global health, and prevention. He is also regularly a speaker on behalf of Columbia University and the Earth Institute at various conferences worldwide.