Photo: Hallie Leo
Motivated by the loss of friends and family when she was a child, PhD candidate Winnie Mkandawire, MS, is advancing the study of infectious disease modeling in the Department of Genomics & Computational Biology at UMass Chan Medical School.
“I grew up in Kawale, Lilongwe, a slum area in Malawi, Africa, where resources are scarce, but curiosity and ambition abound,” said Mkandawire, a Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences student. “From a young age, I was fascinated by science—especially after seeing how preventable diseases like pneumonia and malaria could devastate families, including my own. My childhood best friend died of malaria. I was determined to pursue education to make a difference in public health and medicine.”
Mkandawire’s research in the lab of Andrés Colubri, MFA, PhD, assistant professor of genomics & computational biology, focuses on improving how scientists study and respond to disease outbreaks. She’s developing simulation-based models from data generated by the Operation Outbreak app. This app uses proximity sensing on mobile phones to track the dynamics of disease transmission. Her aim with these models is to advance data-driven outbreak research and make it accessible to the public.
“One of the biggest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic was that existing models struggled to predict how human behavior impacts the spread of disease,” Mkandawire said. “I’m building an interactive platform that helps scientists and policy makers better understand the dynamics of how outbreaks spread, which can test public health strategies, see how viruses evolve and display patterns of infection in real-world settings.”
Mkandawire, who received one of the Schlumberger Foundation’s highly competitive 2024-2025 Faculty for the Future fellowships, said her goal is to reduce morbidity and mortality rates.
“I want to contribute to the advancement of health care delivery worldwide by strengthening health systems and improving the health and well-being of communities,” Mkandawire said, noting that her mother died from heart disease and her father from asthma. “Those personal losses instilled in me a deep sense of purpose.”
“I’m very lucky to have Winnie; she’s the first PhD student in my lab,” said Dr. Colubri. “Her work is remarkable because she’s self-motivated. Winnie’s ready to run the lab. Some people wonder why anyone goes into academia versus industry—students like Winnie are the reason.”
Mkandawire earned a master’s in bioinformatics from Kamuzu University of Health Sciences while working as a junior research scientist at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, she also has a master’s in bioinformatics and computational biology from Worcester Polytechnical Institute.
Outside of the lab, Mkandawire loves Christian and gospel music, often singing at church, home or even at school. Her pride and joy is her 7-year-old son, Ryan.
“I’m a single mother and all the hard work I’m doing is because he’s the only family member I have. He’s passionate about science and loves experimenting, and he likes taking my makeup and mixing it with things like toothpaste to see what forms. He’s my constant source of motivation.”
