WHS Academic Alliance Best Thesis Prize 2026: Winner & Finalists

WHS Academic Alliance

Best Thesis Prize 2026

Dr. Manuel De Oliveira Santos Wins, Seven Finalists Honored

The World Health Summit (WHS) Academic Alliance, in collaboration with Fondazione Sapienza, is proud to present the winner and finalists of the WHS Academic Alliance Best Thesis Prize 2026. Selected for the excellence and relevance of their research to global health, these young scholars represent the innovative thinking driving the field forward.

A €5,000 prize, funded by Fondazione Sapienza, was awarded for the best specialization or doctoral thesis in Health Sciences with a focus on global health. It was open to early-career researchers completing a PhD or residency training at a WHS Academic Alliance institution, with each member institution able to nominate one candidate.

Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

Dr. Manuel de Oliveira Santos

"My doctoral research focused on advancing cardiovascular risk stratification through molecular imaging of atherosclerosis. In the phase IV ROPPET-NAF clinical trial (PMID: 38480058), we investigated the effects of lipid-lowering therapy on vascular microcalcification using Na[18F]F PET-CT, a novel technique that detects early, active plaque instability. We demonstrated a significant reduction in microcalcification activity following rosuvastatin therapy, providing the first clinical evidence of its impact on early-stage plaque remodeling. This work highlights the potential of molecular imaging to identify high-risk individuals beyond conventional measures and to serve as a surrogate endpoint in clinical trials, ultimately supporting more precise and personalized approaches to cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment."

Read the Full Thesis

Finalists

Muhammad Zaman Khan Assir

University of Aberdeen, Scotland

"Using a novel human 3D cortical model that preserves the brain’s immune, vascular, and neural architecture, my thesis uncovered how maternal inflammation disrupts early human brain development and identified molecular pathways driving these changes that can be targeted to potentially restore healthy developmental trajectories, bridging fundamental discovery and future therapeutic innovation in neurodevelopmental disorders."

Johanna Berg

Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

"My thesis investigates if, and how, a trauma quality improvement programme in urban India improves patient outcomes. We found a large reduction in mortality after implementation, but how these programmes work may not be as we imagine: change was not linear, with a problem identified and a solution implemented. Instead, the programme allowed providers to see the full trajectory of care, which improved knowledge and clinical decision-making while enabling local adaptations. Medicine is riddled with uncertainty, hence care is always delivered in a complex adaptive system. Understanding how quality evolves in such systems is key to improving quality of care worldwide."

Lewis Depaauw-Holt

Université de Montréal, Canada

Dr. Depaauw-Holt’s work focuses on a unique type of non-neuronal brain cell, the astrocyte. His research found that early-life stress remodels astrocytes in different ways across brain regions, revealing a hidden layer of vulnerability that could redefine how we understand and treat stress related disorders worldwide. In Lewis’ PhD work he found that astrocytes do not respond uniformly to stress. Instead, lateral hypothalamic astrocytes display sex specific responses to early-life stress, with divergent underlying mechanisms driving behavioural change in adulthood. This work highlights a previously unrecognized astrocytic contribution to stress pathology, opening the door to precision therapies for depression, anxiety, and trauma related disorders, which collectively affect hundreds of millions of people globally.

Fatma Betül Öktelik

Istanbul University, Turkey

"My thesis demonstrates that immune regulation extends beyond the prevention of autoimmunity, revealing how specialized regulatory T cells orchestrate protective antibody responses. By uncovering the role of CD22 in follicular regulatory T-cell biology, this work provides new insights that may contribute to future therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases and immune dysregulation."

Felix Mogire Nyagaka

Aga Khan University, Kenya

Kenya continues to face a high maternal mortality ratio, with 355 deaths per 100,000 live births reported in the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey. Pre-eclampsia contributes to about 15% of direct maternal morbidity and mortality, largely due to delayed triage and poor prediction of disease progression. The validation of the Pre-Eclampsia Integrated Estimate of Risk–Machine Learning (PIERS-ML) tool demonstrates that predictive analytics can reliably identify women at risk of severe outcomes and guide timely escalation of care. This work highlights the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in reducing preventable maternal deaths, strengthening clinical decision-making, and advancing equitable maternal health care in Kenya and across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Narjes Noori Goodarzi

Tehran University, Iran

"With antibiotic resistance rapidly limiting treatment options for gonorrhea, prevention has never been more important. My thesis integrates reverse vaccinology, bioinformatics, and experimental microbiology to identify promising vaccine candidates and develop bivalent vaccine formulations against Neisseria gonorrhoeae. By translating computational predictions into experimentally evaluated vaccine candidates, it aimed to contribute to the development of effective vaccines that can reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance and improve global sexual and reproductive health."

Elisabeth Prevete

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Low doses of mitragynine from kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) produce cognitive stimulant effects; doses between 5 and 40 mg may be suitable for drug development programs, as they appear to be safe for use in controlled settings with neurotypical volunteers. At the same time, the widespread use of kratom warrants attention, as it could contribute to a second addiction epidemic, similar to that associated with classical opioids.