Roy Zent, MD, is the Thomas F. Frist Sr. Professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is a member of the division of nephrology, the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Medicine, and a professor in Cell and Developmental Biology and Cancer Biology. He received medical training at The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and specialized in internal medicine and nephrology at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Zent received a Ph.D in cell biology from the University of Toronto in Canada and did a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Mark Ginsberg at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. He is board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology in South Africa, Canada, and the U.S. 

The main research focus of the Zent group is to define mechanisms of cell-extracellular matrix interactions and how they affect kidney development and function. The family of proteins focused on is called integrins, which are the principal cell receptors for extracellular matrix. The major projects in the group include: 1) defining the mechanisms whereby integrins regulate cell function and signaling; 2) defining how integrin cytoplasmic tails interact with cytoplasmic proteins to regulate cell function; 3) defining the structural determinants of specificity of integrin-dependent signaling. The primary techniques to answer these questions include the making and characterizing transgenic mice, cell biology and biochemical techniques, and structural methodologies, including 3-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance. Our group has extensive collaborations with other groups within the division of nephrology and other departments at Vanderbilt Medical Center.    

Lloyd Mulenga, PhD, MMed, MBChB, MSc is an Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine Specialist, practicing at the University Teaching Hospital, in Lusaka, Zambia and the Director of Infectious Diseases for the Ministry of Health. He is the lead infectious diseases physician for the Zambian COVID-19 clinical response. He currently serves on the United States National Institute of Health (NIH) Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for the Division of AIDS National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the WHO Guidelines Development Group and the WHO HIV Drug Resistance Network (HIVResNet). His research focuses on HIV and clinical outcomes and drug resistance, HIV and non-communicable diseases (kidney, cardiovascular and diabetes) and infectious diseases epidemiology and clinical outcomes including SARS-CoV-2, tuberculosis and hepatitis. 

As a physician-scientist-policymaker, Dr. Mulenga leads infectious disease activities at the University of Zambia, in the university’s teaching hospital and lab, as well as within his country’s health ministry. In addition to conducting research and publishing in nearly 50 journals, he also has engaged in science diplomacy, delivered a plenary presentation on the state of HIV in Africa at the U.N., and participated in a WHO review of the agency’s HIV treatment guidelines.

Dr. Mulenga earned his PhD through the Fogarty-supported University of Zambia-Vanderbilt Training Partnership for HIV-Nutrition-Metabolic Research and completed his medical education at the Univeristy of Zambia. 

Wilbroad Mutale, MBChB, PhD, is a full-time faculty member at the University of Zambia School of Public Health and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Mutale has over 16 years of work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa working as a manager, clinician, and researcher. His primary research interests are the implementation of complex health systems interventions and health system strengthening in low-income settings. He has worked on a variety of research projects on topics such as non-communicable diseases and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. 

Dr. Lee has a background in behavioral and development economics, focusing on improving primary healthcare delivery in the U.S. and low-income countries. His research uses insights from behavioral and organizational economics to improve health behavior and health care delivery in the United States and in developing countries. His recent projects include several field-based randomized controlled trials aimed at strengthening large-scale, public-sector frontline health worker programs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

In 2015, he earned a joint MD from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in health policy and management from Harvard Business School. He also holds an MPA from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar, and a BA in anthropology and comparative religion from Harvard College, graduating summa cum laude.

Scott has held positions at the World Health Organization, Partners in Health, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. His research has been supported by organizations such as the Weiss Family Program Fund, Grand Challenges Canada, and the United States Agency for International Development.

Education

MD, Harvard Medical School
PhD, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences