Two new PhD CEND Fellows

Congratulations to PhD students Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna and Maria Astolfi, both named to the 2026-27 cohort of CEND Fellows. The UC Berkeley Wheeler Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases provides funding to graduate students working on solutions for infectious diseases that affect marginalized or underserved communities. Augusta is studying the role of the ocular microbiome in trachoma, a neglected tropical disease that is the leading cause of infectious blindness, and Maria is advancing initiatives for equitable benefit-sharing with indigenous communities related to microbial production of a malaria vaccine.