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Prof. Asrat Hailu is an immunoparasitologist by training. His career as a biomedical scientist began after doing an MSc degree in biomedical sciences in the Department of Biology, AAU. He obtained his PhD degree in 2008 in the Netherlands, from the University of Amsterdam, Academic Medical Centre.
Prof. Asrat’s research focuses on neglected tropical diseases (leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis), but extends to malaria and other parasitic diseases. His interest in leishmaniasis research was triggered in 1982 while working as a research assistant first at Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), and later at the Institute of Pathobiology (now re-named as Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology). Ever since, he has devoted his career in medical research and teaching. He is presently a Faculty in the School of Medicine, at the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology and CDT-AFRICA (a World Bank Center of Excellence for Drug Development and Innovative Therapeutics).
His research interests in leishmaniasis cover a wide range of topics such as diagnostics, immune responses, vaccines, animal models, clinical trials, transmission and control. Presently Prof. Hailu is coordinating clinical trials on diagnostics, vaccines and treatments of leishmaniasis and malaria in north and south Ethiopia, where he had also established two leishmaniasis research and treatment centres. The centres are equipped with basic facilities for laboratory diagnosis and in-patient treatment of visceral leishmaniasis cases. Prof. Asrat is a member of the Leishmaniasis East African Platform (LEAP), in which a clinical team has been set up for addressing research issues related to treatment, i.e. clinical trials. Prof. Asrat has also established a modest laboratory in the school of medicine at AAU that now is used for research and referral diagnosis of leishmaniasis. As a contribution to control visceral leishmaniasis, (in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Médicin sans Frontières – Holland), Prof. Asrat initiated the publication of the first national guideline on diagnosis and treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in 2006. At the FMoH, he also sits in the NTD task force, and the technical working group for leishmaniasis.
Prof. Asrat is a member of several learned societies, including the Americal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS). Prof. Asrat has been a successful researcher and mentor, and had won several research grant on many occasions.
Prof. Asrat has published extensively; thus far co-authoring over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, the majority on leishmaniasis. He reviews articles for many international journals, and sits in grant application review panels.