Prof. Sam Kariuki

Affiliation(s):

Centre for Microbiology Research at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK 

Sam Kariuki is Director of the Centre for Microbiology Research at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and co-ordinator of the postgraduate Medical Microbiology Course hosted by the Institute in Nairobi.

Sam graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Nairobi in 1989 and then obtained a MSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Nairobi in 1991. He obtained his PhD (Tropical Medicine) from the University of Liverpool in 1997.

As a postdoctoral fellow funded by the Wellcome Trust, Sam researched on the epidemiology and molecular characterisation of invasive non-typhoidal salmonellosis (NTS), which is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa. NTS is common in the region in HIV-positive adults and in children where the infection causes high morbidity and mortality. Utilising basic molecular tools, Sam hypothesised that person-to-person rather than zoonotic transmission was playing a significant role in the epidemiology of community-acquired NTS. Despite scepticism from some scientists this has proven to be correct, a conclusion reached through joint genome analysis linked to field epidemiology carried out with the Sanger Institute.

Sam also works in the area of improving food hygiene through surveillance of other enteric pathogens including cholera, dysentery, typhoid and E. coli contamination through the food chain, funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Because antibiotic resistance is a major problem in the region, Sam is also involved in routine surveillance and monitoring of resistance and chairs the national and regional working groups on antimicrobial resistance. He is now an internationally recognised authority in his field and mentors local African scientists through the postgraduate training courses hosted by KEMRI. Importantly, his laboratory is embedded in a government research institute and is largely independent of core Western funding. However, his laboratory is closely linked to the Wellcome Trust Clinical Unit in Kilifi headed by Kevin Marsh.

Prof. Anthony Scott

Affiliation(s):

KEMRI – Wellcome Trust

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

Anthony Scott trained in clinical infectious diseases and in epidemiology before coming to work in Kilifi in 1993 as a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow. He started studying the aetiology and risk factors of pneumonia in adults and subsequently investigated natural immunity, diagnostics, host-susceptibility and transmission epidemiology of pneumococcal disease in children. In 2000, he set up the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System with Tom Williams. In 2004, Anthony initiated a regional network of surveillance for pneumococcal disease (netSPEAR) with Mike English. Currently, he is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow and Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Osman Abdullahi

Affiliations:

Pwani University

Prof. James Nokes

Email : JNokes@kemri-wellcome.org

James Nokes is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick. Since 2001 he has been based full time at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, Kilifi coastal Kenya. James trained in Zoology (BSc) followed by a PhD in virus epidemiology. His principle interests are the transmission dynamics and control of human viral pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus and rotavirus. The focus of his WT Senior Investigator Award is the integration of epidemiological and genomic data to infer transmission pathways at different scales of interest from the household to countrywide. His research group is inter-disciplinary using molecular, phylogenetic, immunological, mathematical, statistical and field approaches to address key questions relating to respiratory and enteric virus persistence, transmission, and intervention.

Prof. Olubayi Olubayi

Prof. O. Olubayi was born and raised in Kenya and educated at Rutgers University in the USA. Prior to joining Maarifa Education, he was the Vice Chancellor/President of the International University of East Africa (IUEA) in Uganda. He is a scientist and an expert on bacteria, education, learning, leadership and social-entrepreneurship.

As a scientist and eclectic scholar, Olubayi earned his Ph.D. on bacteria-and-plant cell interactions at Rutgers University, holds a research patent on the flocculation of bacteria and has published several scholarly articles in microbiology, biotechnology and social science.

As an educator he taught at Middlesex College and at Rutgers University for 16 years, and has taught critical thinking in the IUEA MBA program. He has been an advisor and consultant to government officials in Kenya and South Africa, and UNDP on matters of literacy, education, biotechnology, sustainable development and global citizenship.

As a social entrepreneur, Olubayi co-founded the non-profit Kiwimbi International and the widely respected American non-profit Global Literacy Project which sets up libraries worldwide and provides global service learning opportunities.

As a thinker, he is the author of the book “Education for a Better World,” and he is currently working on a book on “The Role of a Teacher.”

Dr. Patrick Munywoki

I am a post-doctoral research scientist at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), in Kilifi, Kenya. I joined the programme as a project assistant in November 2005 after completion of a BSc (Nursing Sciences) Degree in Moi University. My main roles were to support inpatient surveillance of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Since then I have been involved in a broad range of research activities, including the development of new research protocols and expansion of the inpatient surveillance to include other respiratory pathogens.

In 2008, I was awarded a Commonwealth MSc training scholarship, and completed the MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom in October 2009, passing with a distinction. Upon my return, I initiated epidemiological studies to investigate the transmission patterns of a range of respiratory viruses in the community settings.

These studies formed part of my Ph.D training under the supervision of Professors D. James Nokes (affiliated to KWTRP, Kilifi, Kenya and University of Warwick, UK) and Graham F. Medley (University of Warwick, UK). I successfully defended my thesis ‘Transmission of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Households: Who Acquires Infection from Whom’ at the Open University, UK in August 2013.

I am currently interested in unravelling transmission dynamics of a range of respiratory viruses in Kenya and identify potential control strategies.