Please give a short description of what your Ph D is about.
My PhD was about developing rapid and affordable diagnostic devices for infectious diseases such as TB, HIV, Ebola and Covid-19. The study involved identifying and selecting DNA molecules that could be employed in lateral flow devices to rapidly detect infectious diseases under study.
In 2019, we travelled to Spain where we were trained in the laboratory on how to identify and select these DNA molecules. We also learnt how to develop these lateral flow devices. When we came back from Spain, we not only selected DNA molecules against TB, Ebola, HIV, diabetes, obesity and cancer, but we also developed a novel pipeline/ work-flow that involves the use of computational approaches (or what we call Bioinformatics approaches). These computational approaches allowed us to identify and select these DNA molecules without the need of going to the laboratory. In other words, instead of going to the laboratory, we can now select these DNA molecules by only using a computer and internet. We later compared the two approaches (selecting DNA in the laboratory versus selecting DNA using our computational approach) and we concluded that our computational approaches were much faster, easier, cheaper and could produce DNA molecules that are reproducible against any disease.
Our computational approach was made possible because we had developed our own DNA database that we can screen against any disease. This means our level of preparedness against any disease outbreak in future will be improved.
How can it be practically implemented on a continent such as ours?
When a country declares a disease outbreak, all efforts go into containing the disease. Considering the impact of the disease, it is necessary to ensure the spread of the disease is controlled by rapid screening of suspected patients, to potentially expedite the treatment process, and to break the chain of disease/viral transmissions. However, the efforts put towards curbing the disease normally takes a toll on the country’s economy. Africa is economically disadvantaged and consists of about 17% of global population, but Africa contributes to about 25% of the global disease burden. This is mainly due to poverty related diseases, neglected tropical diseases, we have the lowest life expectancy, lowest percentage of global pharma market and have significant R&D expertise in academia but are de-linked from industry. With these skills, we have demonstrated that we could detect corona and Ebola viruses using these novel DNA molecules (selected using our computational/ Bioinformatics approaches).
Where does your interest in biotech come from?
My interest in Biotech started ever since I was in high school, where I was fascinated by movies or series featuring scientists. I used to adore scientists and found their work to be cool. One other advantage of being a scientist is the fact that they are involved in activities that at the end of the day will be helping their communities; either by developing detection kits or drugs to treat different diseases. Therefore, I felt as a scientist or biotechnologist, I could offer solutions to the problems facing humanity.
Another reason I got interested in Biotech, is because I realised Africa is not well prepared when it comes to disease outbreaks, and whenever we have a disease outbreak, the scientific community is tasked to come up with devices that could do the following: screen both infected and uninfected people rapidly, devices that could be cheap to the local person and devices that could provide a result at the point-of-care (without the need to return to obtain results).
Tell us about your upbringing and what brought you to this point?
I have been a molecular biologist for the past nine years when I joined Kenyatta University (KU), in Kenya back in 2009. Here, I attended several public lectures and conferences provided by some research organisations in Kenya including Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), Monsanto, Government Chemistry, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) only to mention but a few. I have also been an active member of societies/clubs in KU Main Campus, including Biochemistry Club (KUBIOC) and Molecular and Cellular Biology Club (MCBC-KU). The former was in existence when I enrolled while the latter, I pioneered its initiation and acted as a class representative that time. I got promoted to be the assistant secretary general of MCBC-KU after which I later became the secretary general. In my third year of study, I got attachment/internship opportunity in Kemri where I spent almost seven months training under the care of Moses Mosobo.
My career extended to South Africa, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 2014 where I started as an intern (research assistant) in the biotechnology department under the care of Professor Mervin Meyer. The programme allowed me to get hands-on experience with most of the molecular work that I had explored theoretically during my first degree in Kenya. The group I joined at UWC works in collaboration with Mintek, which is one of the South African Science Councils to develop bio-molecular functionalised nanomaterials for applications in the diagnosis and the treatment of HIV, TB, malaria, Ebola, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
I enrolled for an Honours programme at UWC the following year (2015) with Prof Meyer as my supervisor. My academic journey has since been an exciting one full of adventure in terms of acquiring laboratory skills. I further decided to upgrade my academic qualifications and enrolled for a Masters degree (M Sc). I graduated cum laude (with distinction) in my M Sc on 5 April 2019. I recently completed my Ph D in the same institute, where I was developing a prototype for the diagnosis of TB, HIV, covid and Ebola.
What is your next move, going forward with the research you have done?
Becoming an entrepreneur
I would like to make sure my research does not stay on the shelves of UWC only to catch some dust. I would like to see my research go into making these lateral flow devices that target all these diseases affecting us. Imagine it is covid today and the variants of covid tomorrow, but what about all the other infectious disease agents that for many decades have cost millions of lives? We now have opportunities to tackle them a lot better than we have in the past, using the covid pandemic as a blueprint. Some of these infectious diseases are asymptomatic diseases that are manifested only when they are fatal. In addition, some of these diseases have symptoms similar to typhoid or malaria.
What is your dream for yourself and your research going forward?
My dream is to become a successful entrepreneur. Africa needs innovators and entrepreneurs and so I believe the future is now.
There is a strong relationship between good public health and a thriving economy. The development and commercialisation of these DNA-based lateral flow devices for the diagnosis of TB, HIV, covid and Ebola, can also pave the way for the development of other cost-effective aptamer-based lateral flow devices for the diagnosis of other diseases that are a burden to the South African economy and Africa as a whole.
