Professor Teatulohi (Lohi) Matainaho is Vice Chancellor of the Pacific Adventist University in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and formerly served as chairman of the PNG Science and Technology Council and chief science advisor to the government of PNG.
Professor Matainaho has a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Queensland, and previously held positions as professor of basic medical sciences and pharmacology, head of pharmacology, and Dean of Research at the University of Papua New Guinea. He currently holds adjunct professorial appointment at the University of Utah, USA, and at James Cook University, Australia. He also has had visiting appointments at the NCI/ NIH, QIMR (Brisbane), Griffith University, University of British Columbia, and University of Michigan. His research interest has been primarily focused on natural products drugs discovery as the basis for finding biological therapeutics to treat human diseases (especially malaria, TB, HIV/ AIDS and cancer), and thereby support economic evaluation and conservation of PNG’s biodiversity. Furthermore, his research was able to develop an access benefit sharing approach to support international collaboration, training of PNG scientists, and building of scientific capacity in PNG. In early 2019, he was appointed by the Australia government as a member of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Policy Advisory Council, that advises the Australian Foreign Minister and Australian government on their global agricultural research program.
This page was updated in October 2024.
