Abdoulaye Kassoum Koné, MD, MPH, PhD, is a senior scientist of the Bandiagara Malaria Program (BMP) at the Malaria Research and Training (MRTC) of the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, in Mali. He is Associate Professor of Parasitology-Mycology at the Faculty of Medicine and Odonto-Stomatology of Bamako. He has an expertise in severe malaria diagnosis, management and recognizing the ophthalmologic manifestations such as retinopathy in Malian children with cerebral malaria. Dr Kone serves as clinical investigator, clinical coordinator, and principal investigator in the NIH-NIAID sponsored Bandiagara Malaria Project.  He draws from a decade of experience in clinical malaria studies including epidemiological and clinical trials.  Since 2010 Dr Kone works on cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemiology focused on diagnosis, clinical description, Leishmania species and vectors identification.  As Associate Professor at the FMOS, Dr Kone contribute to train undergraduate MDs, and PharmDs, MSc and PhD candidates in Mali.

Dr Kone areas of expertise include malaria epidemiology, clinical trials, Leishmaniasis epidemiology, parasitic diseases and vectors.

Actual work: Is centered on three topics. First topic is leishmaniasis epidemiology. It focuses on clinical presentation, hosts, Leishmania species and Phlebotomus species interactions in Mali. This was done through an investigation of outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis in dogon country. This project was supported by the ministry of health in Mali. The second topic of work is on the clinical development of vaccines against malaria and viral infections. The malaria vaccine candidate, the MSP3-CRM candidate manufactured by Vac-4-All is being tested in a series of clinical trials to demonstrate the proof of concept of its safety, immunogenicity and efficacy against clinical malaria. The third topic is on hospital-based epidemiological studies of fungal diseases such as Aspergillosis and Histoplasmosis.

Selected publications

1. Kone AK, Niaré DS, Piarroux M, Izri A, Marty P, Laurens MB, Piarroux R, Thera MA, Doumbo OK. Visceral Leishmaniasis in West Africa: Clinical Characteristics, Vectors, and Reservoirs J Parasitol Res. 2019 Sep 2; 2019:9282690. doi: 10.1155/2019/9282690. eCollection 2019. Review. PMID: 31565426
2. Kodio A, Coulibaly D, Koné AK, Konaté S, Doumbo S, Guindo A, Bittar F, Gouriet F, Raoult D, Thera MA, Ranque S. Blastocystis Colonization Is Associated with Increased Diversity and Altered Gut Bacterial Communities in Healthy Malian Children. Microorganisms. 2019 Dec 4;7(12). pii: E649. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms7120649. PMID: 31817168
3. Kané B, Diallo KW, Koné AK, Simaga T, Koné O, Traoré A, Dicko FT. Paludisme grave chez un nouveau-né prématuré à l’unité de néonatologie de l’Hôpital du Mali. Rev Mali Infect Microbiol 2020, Tome 15 : 69-71
4. Ouattara A, Niangaly A, Adams M, Coulibaly D, Kone AK, Traore K, Laurens MB, Tolo Y, Kouriba B, Diallo DA, Doumbo OK, Plowe CV, Djimdé A, Thera MA, Laufer MK, Takala-Harrison S, Silva JC. Epitope-based sieve analysis of Plasmodium falciparum sequences from a FMP2.1/AS02A vaccine trial is consistent with differential vaccine efficacy against immunologically relevant AMA1 variants. Vaccine. 2020 Jul 31;38(35):5700-5706. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.06.035. Epub 2020 Jun 20.
5. Bogale HN, Cannon MV, Keita K, Camara D, Barry Y, Keita M, Coulibaly D, Kone AK, Doumbo OK, Thera MA, Plowe CV, Travassos M, Irish S, Serre D. Relative contributions of various endogenous and exogenous factors to the mosquito microbiota. Parasit Vectors. 2020 Dec 10;13(1):619. doi: 10.1186/s13071-020-04491-7.
6. Nabet C, Kone AK, Dia AK, Sylla M, Gautier M, Yattara M, Thera MA, Faye O, Braack L, Manguin S, Beavogui AH, Doumbo O, Gay F, Piarroux R. New assessment of Anopheles vector species identification using MALDI-TOF MS. Malar J. 2021 Jan 9;20(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12936-020-03557-2.