Recently, the University of The Gambia has appointed Prof. Ramatoulie Njie as the Provost of the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences. She is a remarkable Gambian with a glittering career. We are so excited to have her, as she brings years of experience and serves as an inspiration to women and girls in The Gambia and around the world. For this reason, we are happy to share her glamorous biography with you.
Dr Ramatoulie (Ramou) Njie is a Gambian-born, UK-trained Physician, Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist. She started her career in science with a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology followed by medicine, which led to the award of a primary medical degree (MB, BS), both at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. She then went on to spend nearly 2 decades in the UK where she pursued post-graduate specialist medical training in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, as well as advanced scientific training in viral immunology at many centres of excellence. Her general professional training in Internal Medicine led to election on to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) of London, first as a member and subsequently as a fellow, while her higher specialist training in General Medicine/Gastroenterology & Hepatology led to the award of certificates of completion of specialist training (CCT) in both disciplines.
Her scientific training as an MRC (UK) clinical research training fellow led to the award of a PhD in viral immunology at the CRUK Institute of Cancer Studies at Birmingham University. Dr Njie worked as a substantive NHS consultant Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist in the UK for 3 years where she was responsible for setting up a viral hepatitis treatment service, teaching medical students, nurses and junior doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders as well as in performing advanced endoscopic procedures, before returning back home to The Gambia in 2012.
In The Gambia, Dr Njie headed the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS), a long-running collaboration between The Gambia Government, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO-IARC) and the Medical Research Council in The Gambia. She was also the principal investigator in The Gambia of the EU-funded, multicentre, Prevention of Liver Fibrosis and Cancer in Africa (PROLIFICA) project, with partners in Senegal, Nigeria and Imperial College London. In her role as PI of PROLIFICA, Dr Njie was responsible, together with her team of highly qualified Gambians, for setting up the first-ever Hepatitis-B virus treatment program in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Njie is a practising clinician scientist with research interests in viral hepatitis, immunology, infections and cancer. She has been and continues to be a member of several professional bodies which include: the British Association for the study of the Liver (BASL), The British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (ASSLD), The African Organisation for Research and Treatment in Cancer (AORTIC), among others. Dr Njie has several publications on Hepatitis B virus in peer-reviewed journals and has been a guest speaker at many national, regional and international conferences. Dr Njie has served for many years as a member of the joint MRC/GG ethics committee, the Gambia Medical and Dental Council (GMDC), the Medical Advisory Group of the Ministry of Health, and more recently as a member of the expert advisory group on COVID-19.