Dr. Isabella Oyier
Current Mentees
John Muthii Muriuki
John Muthii Muriuki
Email : JMuriuki@kemri-wellcome.org I’m an epidemiologist with experience in mathematical modelling and analysis of large datasets. I previously worked on modelling transmission dynamics of malaria in an irrigated setting and mapping of the drivers of poor nutritional outcomes in different ecological settings in Kenya. These studies sparked my current interest to research on the complex interactions between nutrition and infections. My PhD project entails investigating whether iron status is causally associated with the risks of malaria and bacterial infections in African children. I’m utilising Mendelian randomization to draw the causal inference. My study will also identify novel genetic variants that alter iron status in a genome-wide association study of African children. Currently, the safety of giving iron supplementation remains a long-standing conundrum among clinicians and policy makers. This study will therefore have an impact on public health policy for managing iron deficiency and the associated infections. In future, I hope to extend this concept to understand how nutritional deficiencies relate to other disease processes.
Publications:
- A comparison of malaria prevalence, control and management strategies in irrigated and non-irrigated areas in eastern Kenya. Muriuki J.M., Kitala P., Muchemi G., Njeru I., Karanja J., Bett B. | Malaria Journal, 2016 15:402 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-016-1458-4
- Muriuki John Muthii, Alexander Mentzer, Gavin Band, James Gilchrist, Tommy Carstensen, Swaib Lule, Morgan Goheen, et al. (2019). “The Ferroportin Q248H Mutation Protects from Anemia, but Not Malaria or Bacteremia.” Science Advances 5 (9): eaaw0109. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/9/eaaw0109
- Muriuki John Muthii, Alexander J Mentzer, Emily L Webb, Alireza Morovat, Wandia Kimita, Francis M Ndungu, Alex W Macharia, et al. (2019). “Malaria Is Causally Associated with Iron Deficiency in African Children.” AAS Open Research. https://aasopenresearch.org/documents/2-141
- Muriuki John Muthii, Alexander J Mentzer, Wandia Kimita, Francis M Ndungu, Alex W Macharia, Emily L Webb, Swaib A Lule, et al. (2018). “Iron Status and Associated Malaria Risk Among African Children.” Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30219845
- Muriuki John Muthii, and Sarah Atkinson. (2018). “How Eliminating Malaria May Also Prevent Iron Deficiency in African Children.” Pharmaceuticals 11 (4): 96. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30275421.
- Muriuki John Muthii, Philip Kitala, Gerald Muchemi, Ian Njeru, Joan Karanja, and Bernard Bett. (2016). “A Comparison of Malaria Prevalence, Control and Management Strategies in Irrigated and Non-Irrigated Areas in Eastern Kenya.” Malaria Journal 15 (1): 402. https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-016-1458-4
Patience Kiyuka
Patience trained as a Biochemist from Kenyatta University, completing her undergraduate studies in 2010. She was first introduced to research through an internship project at USA Medical Research Unit (USAMRU), in Nairobi. At USAMRU, she was attached to the Center for Virus Research where she joined other senior researcher in molecular studies of arboviruses in Kenya. Subsequently, she secured another internship opportunity at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP). After successful completion of the six months project, she was recruited as a Research Assistant with the Virus Epidemiology Group. Here, she was involved in various studies that sought to understand the transmission dynamics of respiratory viruses within the population and it during that period that she was competitively awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship. The scholarship enable her undertake a distance learning masters degree in Infectious Diseases from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, completing her studies in 2015. Towards the end of the same year, she was once again competitively awarded the grant from Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) for her doctoral studies on immunity to Malaria. She is currently registered with Open University for the PhD study. Overall her research interests include: immunity to infectious diseases, molecular epidemiology and health policy.
Akua Botwe
Akua has research interests in malaria vaccine development, molecular biology and immunology. She has had training in Biochemistry (MPhil. and BSc. Hons) and Botany (BSc. Hons) at the University of Ghana, and has worked as a molecular biologist at the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) in Ghana.
Her PhD study is “simply” to understand why some infants have malaria parasites and remain healthy while other infants have malaria parasites and become ill. Her research is supervised by Prof. Anna Farnert at the Karolinska Institutet, Prof. Faith Osier at KEMRI-Kilifi and Heidelberg University Hospital and Dr. Kwaku Poku Asante at KHRC.
Akua has a passion for writing, teaching/mentoring and nurturing children who lose their mothers at birth. At leisure, she would go swimming.
Past Mentees
Isabella completed her PhD in 2006 at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on a Gates Malaria Partnership scholarship, in molecular and cell biology of Plasmodium falciparum. The project focused on the molecular characterization of the endocytic marker Rab5 in the parasite. She then joined the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) on a 3 year postdoctoral research position working on studies of natural selection in Plasmodium falciparum merozoite antigen genes, with Prof Kevin Marsh and Dr David Conway. During this project she was involved in establishing the capillary sequencing facility at the unit and began to develop her career in the molecular epidemiology of malaria. She was awarded a 2 year re-entry grant from the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium (MCDC) in 2009 to conduct a longitudinal study on the genetic diversity of merozoite antigens. In 2012 she extended her interest to the genetic diversity of known human erythrocyte receptors involved in the invasion of the merozoite and conducted this work under an 18 month MCDC Initiative award. She is also carried out research on the temporal variation in malaria drug resistance markers in collaboration with Dr. Colin Sutherland at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is based at the Centre of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (CEBIB), University of Nairobi (UON), since 2011. Isabella was awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Research Fellowship in 2016 to investigate the impact of polymorphisms on Plasmodium falciparum merozoite invasion of erythrocytes and on immune evasion. She continues to conduct studies on antimalarial resistance.
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