DNDi is pleased to announce that the former head of the Chagas Programme at DNDi Latin America, Dr Sergio Sosa-Estani, has been appointed as Director of the Latin America office. Dr Sosa-Estani will be advancing the development and delivery of treatments for neglected and viral diseases, as well as expanding partnerships and collaborative efforts to strengthen both research and development and registration and access across the region.

Trained at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, Dr Sosa-Estani is a surgeon with a postdoctoral degree from Tulane University in New Orleans (USA). He has more than 30 years of experience researching neglected tropical diseases and other infectious diseases, having coordinated projects on Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and HIV/AIDS, among others. He was previously a consultant at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and was director of the National Institute of Parasitology in the Ministry of Health, Argentina, before joining DNDi in 2016 to lead the Chagas Programme based in Latin America.

DNDi is also pleased to announce that Dr María-Jesús Pinazo has been appointed to the position of Head of the Chagas Programme at DNDi, as of January 2022, taking over the reins from Dr Sosa-Estani. Working between Spain and Bolivia since 2007, Dr Pinazo holds a PhD in Internal Medicine from the University of Barcelona and received an international mention and extraordinary award for her work in 2017.

Dr Pinazo has worked in the Chagas disease department of the University of Barcelona Hospital Clinic International Health Service, coordinated the protocol for the diagnosis of Chagas disease in pregnant women and neonates in Latin America, and is a technical director for the Platform for the Comprehensive Care of Chagas Patients in Bolivia and Paraguay.