A smiling man in a blue suit and pink shirt standing outdoors in front of a window with trees and buildings reflected in the glass.

Tonny J. Owalla, BA, MS

Graduate student | Tonny.Owalla@seattlechildrens.org

Tonny is a third year graduate student in the Pathobiology PhD program, Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle. Tonny received a B.A in biomedical laboratory technology and MSc in molecular biology from Makerere University in Uganda. His previous academic research projects were supervised by Dr. Thomas G. Egwang (Med Biotech Laboratories-Uganda) and Prof. Eugene Kinyanda (Makerere University-Uganda). Tonny has broad experience in setting up and operating field-based malaria studies in Africa. He is currently interested in developing “immune modifying genetically attenuated Plasmodium parasites as next generation malaria whole parasite vaccines” under the supervision of Dr Nana Minkah and Dr Ashley Vaughan. He enjoys listening to music outside the lab environment.

Publications

  1. Owalla TJ, Hergott DE, Seilie AM, Staubus W, Chavtur C, Chang M, Kublin JG, Egwang TG, Murphy SC. Rethinking detection of pre-existing and intervening Plasmodium infections in malaria clinical trials. Frontiers in Immunology. 2022;13.

  2. Hergott DE, Owalla TJ, Balkus JE, Apio B, Lema J, Cemeri B, Akileng A, Seilie AM, Chavtur C, Staubus W, Chang M. Feasibility of community at-home dried blood spot collection combined with pooled reverse transcription PCR as a viable and convenient method for malaria epidemiology studies. Malaria journal. 2022 Dec;21(1):1-6.

  3. Egwang TG, Owalla TJ, Kemigisha M. COVID-19 vaccine trials must include helminth-infected cohorts. Nature Immunology. 2022 Feb;23(2):148-.

  4. Owalla TJ, Ssebajjwe WJ, Muhanguzi D, Womersley JS, Kinyanda E, Kalungi A. Association of stress, glucocorticoid receptor, and FK506 binding protein gene polymorphisms with internalizing disorders among HIV-infected Children and Adolescents from Kampala and Masaka districts—Uganda. Frontiers in pediatrics. 2021;9.

  5. Owalla TJ, Okurut E, Apungia G, Ojakol B, Lema J, Murphy SC, Egwang TG. Using the ultrasensitive Alere Plasmodium falciparum malaria Ag HRP-2™ rapid diagnostic test in the field and clinic in Northeastern Uganda. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2020 Aug;103(2):778.

  6. Owalla TJ, Palacpac NM, Shirai H, Horii T, Egwang TG. Association of naturally acquired IgG antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen-5 with reduced placental parasitemia and normal birth weight in pregnant Ugandan women: a pilot study. Parasitology international. 2013 Jun 1;62(3):237-9.