Pascal Bessong: Education
Pascal Bessong holds a master’s degree in Medical Microbiology and Parasitology from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He did his doctoral studies on the molecular virology of HIV. For this, he received training at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa, under the mentorship of Professor Lynn Morris; and at the Laboratoire REGER, UMR 5097 CNRS-Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, France, under the mentorship of Professors Simon Litvak and Marie-Line Andreola. He did his postdoctoral training at the Myles H. Thaler Center for AIDS and Human Retrovirus Research, University of Virginia, USA, under the mentorship of Professors David Rekosh https://med.virginia.edu/thaler-center/. His postgraduate training was supported, at different times, through fellowship awards from the National Research Research Foundation of South Africa; Ellison Medical Foundation, USA; Fogarty International Center/NIH, USA; the French Government; and the International Society for Infectious Diseases. He enjoys scientific mentorship from Professor Richard Guerrant, University of Virginia, USA.
Research interests
Pascal Bessong is interested in how factors from germs, the human body, and the environment influence the development of resistance by germs to antimicrobials; and how antiretrovirals and antibiotics can remain effective. He is also interested to know how viruses affect the lining of the intestine of children. If the surface of the intestine is disrupted, a child may not respond well to vaccines that are given by mouth, for example oral polio vaccine. It also means the child may not properly absorb nutrients from food, and this may impact the growth of the child, in stature and in cognition. Pascal Bessong has more than 15 years of experience, as principal investigator, in the establishment and management of community-based prospective birth and adult cohorts for studies on antimicrobial resistance, and enteric infections. He is the Principal Investigator of the AIDS Virus Research Laboratory and the Founding Director of the HIV/AIDS & Global Health Research Programme at the University of Venda.
The scientific contributions of Pascal Bessong have been published in more than 170 peer-reviewed articles, in reputable and highly influential journals, such as Science, Lancet Global Health, PLOS Medicine, Ebiomedicine, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, BMJ Global Health, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Disease, among others. He has been invited to give opinions and and editorial comments in leading journals such as The Lancet HIV and South African Medical Journal. Most of his research is towards discovery for preclinical applications, to provide evidence for policy development, and for global health imperatives. He has presented his research findings or articulated his scientific views in over 70 conference. https://bessongthemicrobiologist.com/research-at-hagh/
Human capital development
In the development of human capital, Pascal Bessong has successfully trained 17 doctoral, 34 research masters students, and nine postdoctoral fellows. He is experienced in the training of human capital from different backgrounds and cultures. His postgraduate students, research fellows and visiting scientists have come from South Africa, Congo, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroons, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Pascal Bessong is an awardee of competitive research and training grants from several funding agencies. These include: the National Academy of Sciences/USAID, USA; Medical Research Council, Department of Science and Technology, Technology Innovation Agency, National Research Foundation, of South Africa; Fogarty International Center/NIH (USA); and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/FNIH/University of Virginia (USA).
Professional service and honours
Pascal Bessong is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa https://www.assaf.org.za/index.php/about-assaf/membership, a registered Professional Natural Scientist, an Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Science (Section: Cell, Molecular Biology and Health) https://sajs.co.za/about/editorialTeam; and a rated scientist of the National Research Foundation of South Africa. He is a technical reviewer for the Health and Medical Research Fund, Government of Hong Kong. He reviews manuscripts for several leading peer reviewed; and reviews grant applications, on adhoc basis, for several other research funding bodies. On has received, on four occasions, the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award, and letter of acknowledgement from the Dzimauli Traditional Authority for community engagement in research. He has examined doctoral thesis for over 10 universities in South Africa, Ghana, and Zimbabwe; and reviewed applications for professorial appointments and promotions for Universities in the United States, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Pascal Bessong is currently a Professor of Microbiology and Global Health; and Acting Chair of the Human and Clinical Trials Research Ethics Committee http://www.univen.ac.za. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Global Health Equity, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, USA, engaged in research collaborations and student exchange programmes https://globalhealth.virginia.edu/.
Scholarly Publications
See Google scholar profile of Pascal O. Bessong at https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=4FXKRpYAAAAJ&hl=en