Prof. Eleni Aklillu secures €1.8 Million grant to coordinate the PREGART Clinical Trial
Professor Eleni Aklillu, group leader of the GH-Pharma reserach group, has been awarded a €1.8 million grant to coordinate the PREGART clinical trial, funded by the European Union through GH-EDCTP3. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project received both a cost and time extension to ensure successful implementation.
The PREGART project is a large, multi-country study designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of newly introduced first-line antiretroviral regimens in HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission and the neurocognitive development of infants. Four PhD students (two from Hawassa University and two from Makerere University) have been registered at KI and are actively engaged in the PREGART project.
The study is being conducted in Ethiopia and Uganda, in collaboration with the following consortium members:
- Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden
- Hawassa University, Ethiopia
- Makerere University, Uganda
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Italy
This collaborative effort represents an important step towards improving maternal and child health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa.