Faculty Profile: Dr. Sanika Chirwa

Dr. Sanika Chirwa is a tenured Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at Meharry Medical
College and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He has an academic
and professional background in pharmacy, medicine, and biomedical research acquired at the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada followed by a fellowship at the University of
California at Los Angeles in USA.
Briefly, Dr. Chirwa conducts research projects consisting of basic science, observational clinical
studies, and randomized clinical trials. The basic science projects focus on understanding the
mechanisms undergirding learning and memory consolidation and how these are altered by
psychoactive drugs like methamphetamine or brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical
studies investigate causal links between poor sleep quality and cognitive impairment associated
with Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, a current project is aimed at verifying causal links between
poor sleep quality during gestation and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as gestational
diabetes, preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, premature delivery, hemorrhage, and stillbirths
more prevalent in African American than Caucasian women.
In terms of international activities, Dr. Chirwa is the Project Director for the global health
consortium involving four historically black medical schools (i.e., Meharry Medical College,
Howard University, Charles Drew University, and Morehouse School of Medicine) in the USA that
was established in 2017 to eliminate the HIV epidemic affecting adults and children in Zambia
and Malawi by 2030. The project is supported by the Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Dr. Chirwa is heavily invested in teaching professional (Medical, Dental scholars, plus Psychiatric
and Neurology Residents) and graduate (PhD, MS, Postdoc) scholars at the national and
international levels.