Abdissa Hordofa

Postdoctoral Trainee

Dr. Abdissa Biruksew Hordofa is a medical parasitologist, Assistant Professor at Jimma University, and postdoctoral researcher in the URBAN-VECTOR training program in Ethiopia. His research focuses on malaria epidemiology, parasite reservoirs, diagnostic innovation, and transmission dynamics in urban, peri-urban, and rural settings. He earned his PhD in Tropical and Infectious Diseases from Jimma University on 04 March,2025, where his doctoral research project addressed critical gaps in malaria control by identifying asymptomatic infections among schoolchildren and evaluated novel malaria diagnostic tools, and mapped the spatiotemporal and local transmission networks of malaria in Jimma Zone, Southwestern Oromia, Ethiopia. These studies are published in high impact journals. Additionally, Dr. Abdissa hold an MSc in Medical Parasitology and a BSc in Medical Laboratory Technology and have worked on clinical efficacy trials of antimalarial drugs. He has authored and co- authored several scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals (ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3728-7028). As a peer reviewer for journals such as Scientific Reports, Malaria Journal, BMJ etc, Dr. Abdissa contribute to the integrity of global scientific dialogue. In 2023, Abdissa earned a verified HarvardX certificate in PH425x: MalariaX—Defeating Malaria from the Genes to the Globe, the course strengthened his expertise in malaria biology, transmission, control strategies, and global elimination efforts. In his current postdoctoral research project with the URBAN-VECTOR program, Dr. Abdissa investigates the clinical and molecular epidemiology of urban malaria. His work integrates epidemiological, molecular, genomic, and spatial approaches to identify Plasmodium parasite reservoirs and elucidate malaria transmission dynamics within urban vector ecosystems. His

broader research also includes evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of antimalarial drugs.