Samba Jallow is a Scientific Officer currently working for PRECISE at Illiasa, and our Star of the Month in May. Samba holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of The Gambia, and had the privilege to acquire his laboratory skills in ISO15189 accredited medical laboratories i.e Clinical Haematology, Clinical Microbiology and Clinical Biochemistry.

He joined MRCG@LSHTM in 2018 and the PRECISE family in 2019, where he is responsible, among other things, for preparing reagents for the lab, as well as receiving, processing and storing samples, and entering them into Open Specimen.

Samba is very hardworking, honest, and flexible. Recently, he did an exceptional job managing the lab in Illiasa, covering for his colleague while he was on paternity leave. Coincidentally, during this period the site registered the highest number of deliveries since its opening.

Samba was also selected to join a team of scientists at Covid lab at Fajara to process samples using PCR when The Gambia was registering high cases of Covid-19.

“Maternal mortality is a long-standing difficulty affecting women in Sub-Saharan Africa, The Gambia included. With the intervention of PRECISE, I believe that the future of women in The Gambia and in Africa at large will be reassured. I am proud to be part of such a noble crusade.”