Rosanna Peeling is a professor and Chair of Diagnostics Research and Director of the International Diagnostic Centre (IDC) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Trained as a medical microbiologist, Rosanna was previously Research Coordinator and Head of Diagnostics Research at the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO special programme for research and training in tropical diseases in Geneva, Switzerland and Chief of the National Laboratory for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Canada. Her research focuses on defining unmet diagnostic needs and facilitating test development, evaluation and implementation in developing countries. She established the IDC to advocate the value of diagnostics, foster innovation, and accelerate access to quality-assured diagnostics to improve global health and combat antimicrobial resistance. She is a member of the Prize Advisory Panel for the UK Longitude Prize, the European Commission Horizon 2020 AMR Prize and the Global AMR Innovation Fund.
Rosanna contributed to the WHO testing guidelines for HIV, hepatitis, dengue and sexually transmitted infections and served as a member of the WHO/TDR Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Global Validation Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on In Vitro Diagnostics (SAGE IVD), the Social Innovation for Health Initiative and the WHO COVID-19 advisory panel for developing target product profiles for diagnostics. She is a member of the Africa CDC Laboratory Working Group for the COVID-19 pandemic response and has worked with the Africa CDC to set up a Biobanking Network for the evaluation of diagnostic tests for diseases of epidemic potential. Rosanna has collaborated with Fondation Mérieux to organize an advanced course on diagnostics, which has trained over 350 policymakers in 80 countries over the last 10 years.
Rosanna was the first woman scientist to be awarded the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine’s George MacDonald Medal in 2014. Her research was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary on chlamydia infection and infertility as well as in Fighting Syphilis, a documentary in the highly acclaimed BBC Kill or Cure series. In 2021, she was named an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.