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In March of this year, the Department welcomed Tahmeed Ahmed, MBBS, PhD, executive director of a global health research institute based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The organization is internationally recognized for its contributions to the significant improvements in health achieved by Bangladesh and for the major roles it has played in international responses to global humanitarian crises, particularly to prevent and control outbreaks of infectious disease. 

As part of his visit, Ahmed presented his vision for combating childhood malnutrition, including community-based and clinical approaches and locally developed ready-to-use therapeutic foods. For his decades-long commitment in this area, Ahmed was named one of for 2025. 

During his visit to Hopkins, Ahmed spoke about the shared history of icddr,b and the Department. Despite the recent global health funding cuts in the U.S., he remains optimistic that the two organizations can continue to strengthen their collaboration producing high-quality evidence that leads to improved health and lives saved around the world. 

icddr,b and the Department have worked successfully together for many decades. Is there an early project that stands out to you?

I think the classic work that was done many years ago is the one on tetanus toxoid vaccine. This study was led by Robert Black, MD, MPH. He was looking at the impact of this tetanus toxoid vaccine and how it prevents tetanus in women. What he found was very interesting. Not only did it prevent tetanus in the women, it also prevented neonatal tetanus. It was doubly advantageous. 

Now, tetanus toxoid has been incorporated into the national immunization programs of many countries all over the world. This is recommended both by the WHO as well as UNICEF.

We have collaborated on many projects over the years with Abdullah Baqui, MBBS, DrPH ’90, MPH ’85, and the International Center for Maternal and Newborn Health, which he leads. The , a consortium of global health organizations, is just one example of our ongoing work together that has produced many groundbreaking developments in maternal, neonatal, and child health research.

Overall, we are currently working on more than 20 research projects with Johns Hopkins. In the field of nutrition, we’re collaborating closely with researchers, such as Parul Christian, DrPH ’96, MSc, Keith West, DrPH ’87, MPH, Ethan Gough, PhD, MPH, and Daniel Erchick, PhD ’17, MPH ’12, with JiVitA, a maternal and child health and nutrition research project in rural northwestern Bangladesh. In one study we’re looking at micronutrient doses in women and what the optimum dose is of these multiple micronutrients for women during pregnancy. This is extremely important for having an impact on the health of women and also on the healthy birth outcomes of newborns.

Another JiVitA study investigates the role of the vaginal microbiome on the health outcomes of both pregnant women and their newborns. There has been a lot of work on the gut microbiome, but there is very sparse work done on vaginal microbiomes. We’re finding that if the vaginal microbiome is healthy, it means that the newborn who comes out of the birth canal is going to have a very good dose of the protective microbiome from the mom.

Can you describe a little about the working relationship between icddr,b and Hopkins?

There's a very strong legacy of work between icddr,b and the Johns ��ѻ��ý. Of all the directors of icddr,b, five were either directly or indirectly associated with the School.

I think the two institutions are very complementary. icddr,b provides the population, has access to the population, and has a very good mix of scientists from all disciplines. We have epidemiologists. We have statisticians. We have biochemists and microbiologists, and clinicians who run three hospitals.

Johns Hopkins has scientific acumen. And your scientists work together with us running  projects that inform the whole world. One example is micronutrients, but there are dozens that have emerged from the joint collaborative work between the two institutions. A lot has been done, but there is scope for more. That's one of the main objectives of my visit this time is to see that we enter a new chapter of collaboration between the two institutions.

icddr,b can offer its field sites, its data sets, and its hospitals. It also has a team of junior and mid-level researchers who are very enthusiastic about working with colleagues at Johns Hopkins.

It has been very productive relationship, and I’m excited about the future. Dr. Walson and I have worked together for several years, and we have been in touch frequently to discuss how we can maintain and expand the collaboration between the two institutions. Also, later this year, Dr. West will be a key speaker at our annual icddr,b meeting in Dhaka, where he will share findings and perspectives on his nutrition research in Bangladesh.

Many faculty and students have worked with icddr,b. How can new faculty and students engage with your organization? 

There's a huge degree of work that students, postdocs, and junior faculty at Johns Hopkins can do at icddr,b. What I would suggest is that they should look at our They should send exploratory emails to people at icddr,b including myself. We can then direct them to the relevant principal investigator. They can spend time visiting icddr,b and working with the PI; or, if there is data available they can do joint analysis with us. We have tons of data and we want to make that available for joint analysis. 

How do you see our working relationship evolving?  

In the past, we have relied on Hopkins for things like equipment that we could not purchase ourselves. Now we have a genomics center which is fully functional so many of the sequencing and other things are being done locally rather than sending samples to Hopkins or other universities.

A new development that is already happening is the Department’s engagement with collaborating institutions right from the beginning of a project. I know your chair, Judd Walson, MD, MPH, supports this approach. I certainly welcome it. If it is done correctly, the local context, which is so very important, comes into the forefront.

In your talk today, you mentioned that researchers need to look beyond the nutrition delivery piece and advocate for implementation and change at scale. Do you have an action plan to achieve that?

Yes, we need to work with the health system, the government, and civil society. For our on locally made ready-to use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), we decided to take a very careful, gradual approach, and this has taken me and my colleagues quite a long time, and that was deliberate. We didn't want to just jump in.

We proactively went to the government to get approval for the research project. Then we were able to go back to them and say, look, this is an approved project. These are good results. The next step is to work in the mainstream population on effectiveness and proving that it will work at scale. We then can tell the policymakers that everything has gone well and now is the time to scale it up. At that point, the groundwork has been laid because you've engaged the government from the very beginning rather than just having them react at the end of the process.

Previously, our scientists, including myself, used to be happy with just the publication of a paper in a good journal. That's it and then you move on. But now more and more we are focusing on impact. We developed a policy translation unit to facilitate the work of scientists in seeing that their innovative work has an impact. And I personally take an interest and work with individual scientists. We now have a list of innovations, one of them being the that I described today.

What’s next for icddr,b and the Department?  

I think we should continue co-hosting dissemination events where we invite policy makers, ministers, important members of civil society, and present the results of the research done in collaboration with each other, such as many of the JiVitA studies. Results can be shared in a very simple way which is comprehensible to policymakers. This is something that I consider today very important: how can we jointly move policymakers. If we have just one organization talking to them, that's one impact. If you have two very well-known organizations coming together and saying the same thing, that has even more impact.  

This April icddr,b chair Judd Walson and a contingent of IH faculty. The trip was a great success, with a number of topics identified for future collaboration, including hypernatremia, a complication of diarrhea that can lead to death in many children. Bloomberg School faculty toured the facilities including the clinical sites, and they learned about how icddr,b is planning to confront public health challenges today and into the future.    

“While much about the future of global health is uncertain, I am certain that strong collaborations, such as the one between icddr,b and Johns Hopkins, will be critical in unlocking future potential impact and ensuring health, well-being, and health security around the world,” says Walson, MD, MPH, the Robert E. Black Chair of the Department of International Health.

Interview conducted and edited by Brandon Howard, communications manager, and Sara Woodward, senior development officer, in the Department of International Health at the Johns ��ѻ��ý.