Wema Kibanga
Mentor: Dr. Charles Wood, Ph.D.
Graduate Assistant
Department of Genetics Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
New Orleans, LA 70112
Email: wkiban@lsuhsc.edu
BIO: Wema Kibanga is a third-year graduate student at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, where she trains under the mentorship of Dr. Charles Wood, Ph.D. She earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a master’s degree in clinical and Hospital Pharmacy from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. During her master’s training, Ms. Kibanga completed clinical rotations across multiple specialties, including oncology, where she developed a strong interest in HIV-associated malignancies; a field that now defines her research focus.
RES: Wema Kibanga’s research centers on Kaposi sarcoma, an HIV-associated malignancy driven by viral pathogenesis. Her work focuses on identifying and characterizing reservoirs of Kaposi sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV) using human autopsy samples, with the goal of uncovering viral persistence mechanisms that contribute to disease development and progression.