Placide Mbala Kingebeni is an Associate Professor at the University of Kinshasa Medical School; he is the Head of the Epidemiology and Global Health Division and Director of the Clinical Research Center at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Dr. Mbala has extensive experience in medical biology, with specific training and expertise in microbiology, virology, and outbreak investigations. His research focuses on viral zoonoses with risk factors for human contamination. As principal investigator and co-investigator for several universities and US-funded grants, Dr. Mbala laid the groundwork for his research projects in very remote areas of the DRC where most outbreaks occur. He has contributed to several research projects including clinical and genomic characterization of zoonotic viral pathogens such as Ebola, mpox virus, SARS-CoV2, etc.
Currently, Dr. Mbala, as principal and co-principal investigator, is leading several research studies in collaboration several research institutions in Africa, Europe, Asia and Arimerica.
Dr Mbala was awarded by Nature’s 10 among people who shaped Science in 2024 and by Time 100 Health 2025 among The Most Influential People in Health of 2025. He has published over 100 journal articles and holds a Master in Science of Public Health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp and a Doctor of Health Biology from University of Montpellier. He is Lecturer at the Institute of One Health of Africa, University of Kinshasa, Lecturer for the International University Degree: Emerging Infections – One Health Approach by the Medical School of the University of Montpellier, Guest lecturer at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Guest lecturer at the Epidemiology Department of the University of California Los Angeles, Visiting Professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, Extraordinary Professor at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape.