Andrew Medina-Marino, PhD

Dr. Andrew Medina-Marino is a Principal Investigator at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF) and co-leads DTHF’s Division of Men’s Health. In 2021, he established DTHF’s new research site in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa’s poorest province. He is an Honorary Associate Professor at University of Cape Town’s School of Medicine and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Andrew’s research portfolio focuses on men’s health in the context of TB, HIV and mental health, and finding ways to implement point-of-care diagnostics to optimize individual’s health outcomes. With regards to men’s health, his work seeks to understand and address the impact of social determinants and mental health on engagement, progression and outcomes along the HIV and TB care cascades. With regards to diagnostics, he seeks to identify new implementation strategies to improve access to diagnostic testing at both clinic- and community-level to improve TB and sexually transmitted infection (STI) case detection and optimize HIV viral suppression. His work has been supported by the U.S. NIH, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and FIND. In addition to his research portfolio, Andrew is PI of and directs the NIH D43 Khulani Siphile Siphuhle PhD Training Program to increase research capacity in Eastern Cape province, with a focus on training historically disadvantaged researchers. Prior to moving to South Africa in 2011, Andrew was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the U.S. CDC. As an outbreak investigation specialist, he was twice deployed to Liberia during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak to work with Médecins Sans Frontières. Andrew received his PhD in Molecular Neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology, where he was a Howard Hughes Doctoral Fellow, and his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College.