“Trailblazers with Garry" is a series from Global Health Matters, where host Garry Aslanyan sits down with trailblazers — thinkers, leaders, and influencers shaping the future of global health — for short face-to-face conversations, available in both audio and video formats. It’s a chance to get to know the people behind the work and hear their perspectives on the current global health landscape.

For this episode, Garry visited Professor John Gyapong at the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) in Accra, Ghana. Since taking up the role of Secretary General of ARUA in 2024, John has been passionately leading efforts to strengthen Pan-African research collaborations. Early in his career, and at a time when global attention was fixed on malaria, John chose instead to focus on neglected tropical diseases. Today, as a leader and educator, he remains deeply committed to Africans developing solutions for Africa and nurturing the next generation of research scientists.

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Trailblazers with Garry: a conversation with John Gyapong