Julie Makani is a senior lecturer and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. She also holds an appointment as a Clinical Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Medicine of the  University of Oxford. She received her post-graduate diploma in internal medicine from the University of London in 1997 and completed her Ph.D. in sickle cell disease at Muhimbili University in 1994. She held the position of vice chairman with The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania from 2008 to 2010. Internet: http://www.globalsicklecelldisease.org/OurLeaders/juliemakani/index.aspx