Dr. Christian Agyare

I have always liked science and research since my high school days because of the fascinating and interesting nature of science. And hence becoming a fellow will enhance my scientific skills, experience, knowledge and opportunity to achieve my aims in research and teaching and also assist me to contribute my quota in the search for bioactive compounds from natural products especially medicinal plants since about 70-80% of the people in Africa and other developing countries depend on medicinal plants and/or traditional herbal practitioners for their health needs.

 At the Venture Cafe welcome reception

I want to be a Fellow so that I can participate in laboratory training and non-laboratory based workshops with staff from Seeding Labs, Novartis and other research institutions in the Boston area. This fellowship will also give me the opportunity to take part in the intensive project development and grant-writing work, presentations, data analysis, lab safety and teaching programs in the fellowship. I will also have the opportunity to interact with other scientists from other sister universities and research institutions from both developed and developing countries and attend scientific seminars and science-related workshops. I believe the knowledge, skills and experience that would be gained in the course of this fellowship would be put at the disposal of or imparted to both graduate and undergraduate students of Pharmacy and Herbal Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana through practical demonstrations, laboratory works, supervision of research work and mentorship.

I will impart the skills and experience that will be acquired through the fellowship to both graduates and undergraduates through my supervision and mentorship so that these graduates will be more marketable, innovative and research-oriented persons and also contribute to the development of Ghana and Africa in general.

With the limited facilities/equipment and absence of the state of art laboratories in my university, I can link up and connect to other scientists/researchers for possible collaborations on research areas/topic through this fellowship. This sort of collaboration, partnership and networking of scientists in Africa and those from the developed countries will go a long way to facilitate research and subsequent human and physical development of Africa.

I do enjoy watching soccer and other sports and I also like visiting interesting places such as museums, historic places etc at my leisure times. 

 Dr. Christian Agyare

After 6 weeks of adjusting to Boston life, the Fellows are spending a lot of time in their labs, they have begun collaborating with other scientists, and they finally know their way around the city! On Tuesday, Elicia Estrella - Genetic Counselor at Children's Hospital, Boston - led a grantsmanship session on clinical research. The goal was to address some of the issues as one thinks through a proposal for a grant, and the Fellows were impressed with the presentation and believed it to be extremely helpful. Thursday was an exciting day as it was the Seeding Labs Science and Development in Africa Symposium. The six panelists included Matthew Stremlau (Postdoctoral Fellow, The Broad Institute), Ken Simiyu (Commercialization Fellow, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health), Brigitta Tadmor (VP, Global Head, Diversity & Inclusion and Health Policy, NIBR), Almoustapha Maiga (2011 Seeding Labs/Novartis Fellow and Assistant Professor of Virology, University of Bamako, Mali), and Ibok Oduro (2011 Seeding Labs/Novartis Fellow and Head, Department of Food Science & Technology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana). The keynote speaker was Alex Dehgan (Science & Technology Advisor and Director, Office of Science & Technology, USAID.

2011 Fellows: Almoustapha Maiga, Bassirou Diarra, and Drissa Samake at the event

After an informative presentation on how science and technology can address global problems and an insightful Q&A session, the guests were able to talk with some of the speakers and the 2011 Seeding Labs Fellows. Many walked away with the desire to volunteer and to help continue the Ambassador program and the Fellows program. It was a very rewarding night!

Drissa Samake of Mali and Ray Voegborlo of Ghana talking with a guest
at the Science and Development in Africa Symposium
On Friday the Fellows split up to visit different labs at Harvard and Tufts. At the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the Fellows toured the Fortune Lab and the Wirth Lab. Both groups said it was a very helpful experience, and one Fellow said that they "really identified with our goals." Many of the Fellows will stay in touch with the professors and researchers working in the labs at HSPH. Other Fellows went to the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. The tour was led by Paul Fuss and the Fellows talked with Sarah Booth, the Associate Director and professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. This was especially helpful for Ibok Oduro, who is researching nutrition, food sciences, and aging back in Ghana.

This upcoming week, the Fellows are looking forward to watching the Cape Cod League All Star game on Friday at Fenway Park.

Keep checking our blog to hear from our 2011 Seeding Labs Fellows!

RITA

"I realised then that I was ready to address the issue of what I wanted to be in the future.  I wanted to be a medical doctor"

Growing up as a young girl was always going to be a challenge due to several factors including cultural gender stereo-typing in the choice of career, family responsibilities, even  in the choice of play toys, education and so on. It was not strange then to hear words like ‘Akosua what kind of job do you want to do when you grow up’? -‘A girl sells garden eggs not gun powder’ to wit, don’t bother doing anything deemed to be in a man’s domain since one is unlikely to get anywhere with it.

In education, parents tended to pressurise girls to take subjects that will give them time to assist in family chores at home. I was no exception; being the 10^th of 11 children and unfortunately for me the youngest of the girls. My responsibilities which were clearly defined by the time I turned 9 were many since my elder sisters were all grownups and most of them settled in jobs and marriages. I was the errand girl of the house; helping mum look after her grand children while my brothers had all the time in the world for their books, games and time to engage in other activities. Besides, I played nanny to my big sister when she was having her children and changed schools as often as she moved homes. Thus distracted, I kept repeating my class any time I was taken to another region to help look after my sisters’ new born babies. Indeed, I hold the family record of having attended primary schools in all the regions of Ghana. End results? I spent more than necessary years in  basic school until I finally got rescued by my primary class 4 teacher- Mr Mensah (now deceased), he stopped at nothing to convince my mum to ensure that I had time for my books since to him I could go places given the slightest push. That indeed was the turning point. I realised then that I was ready to address the issue of what I wanted to be in future. I wanted to be a medical doctor –as most kids in a Ghanaian primary school always said, anyway. Thankfully, my mum resolved that I’d had enough of the moving around. A new phase in my life began, I did read anything I could lay hands on, including most of the story books in the British Council library in Kumasi which fortunately was close to our residence and accessible on foot after school and on Saturdays.

Now to the choice of a career; I hated to see people going through pain especially the sick and I always wanted to do something to help out. I developed special interest in kids, probably stemming from my ‘childhood profession’ of looking after babies and did whatever was possible to soothe their pains especially the sick ones. I witnessed my father, auntie and grandma apply herbal remedies to treat ailments of common occurrence and was really fascinated to see how quickly relief was obtained. Going down memory lane, I think that is when my interest in pharmacy and for that matter medicinal plant research was conceived. I found myself choosing to read pharmacy at the university instead of medicine. Right after the first degree, through the national service period when I served as a Teaching Assistant and also as a Demonstrator for Pharmacy students in my home university (KNUST, Kumasi) and also at King’s College, London, as well for my PhD, my preoccupation has been to collate information on indigenous medicinal plants and scientifically validate their folkloric claims for the treatment of various diseases. For my Masters and PhD degrees, I researched some plants employed in the treatment of wounds and infections among the Ashanti ethnic group in Ghana. There has been no turning back since then. The last few years have seen a continuation of my research into Ghanaian medicinal plants for their antipediculosidal, anthelminthic and anti-inflammatory properties

I have sought for and welcomed every opportunity to learn more advanced research and development techniques. For me, becoming a 2011 Seeding Labs Fellow is a fantastic opportunity which would afford me the privilege to upgrade my skills in the use of the state of the art equipment vital to natural product research to make me a better scientist equipped to train younger scientists in the approaches to drug discovery from natural sources.

The challenges in my institution are similar to those faced by others in Africa; lack of expertise in key research areas, training opportunities, equipments to conduct research is indeed glaringly disturbing. I look forward to this Fellowship program as a platform to assist me in acquiring enough knowledge to hopefully, afford me and my colleagues , the necessary exposure  to attract some donations of essential  equipments such as  plate readers, IR, UV, NMR  and GC-MS, that would greatly assist our  research and training  in our institution and other sister universities in Ghana. Science and Technology determines the global distribution of wealth and power and poverty reduction. Africa faces enormous problems of shortages of food, health care, essential and affordable medicines, literacy, energy, security, water supply, sanitation, and many other issues pertaining to development. Africa must be seen to be rising up to the challenge of supporting more appropriate researches which would lead to the alleviation of these problems. I would like to witness an all hands on deck approach to science and technology in Africa with significant inputs from women for the advancement of society.

I am very passionate about post graduate training in natural product research and deeply committed to contributing my quota in bringing research at my institution to the highest possible standards. To this end, I look forward to the day when our laboratories would be sufficiently equipped to , for example, conduct our own analysis on pure isolates without them being lost in the postal systems when mailed to collaborating laboratories overseas for analysis.

Life outside the lab? My research skills are always neatly transferred from the university Lab to my home Lab, my kitchen! I love to spend time cooking traditional dishes with my girls, Akosua, Abena, Akua and Afia, to share with friends and hang out with my girls and my soul mate –Nana, the dogs-Roxy, Miijo, Biggie and Bailey Knight King I. I always look forward to these moments when we share a hymn, pray and read the Bible together and of course, the pursuit of my other passion; motivating young girls to make a career in science.

Ellis Owusu-Dabo

"The goal is to find simple but appropriate uses of technology to fight disease ignorance and poverty"

I was born in Kumasi in the heart of Ghana but grew up in the coastal city of Takoradi, with a military dad and a trader mum. Growing up anywhere in Africa is a challenge and Ghana is no different - not many even dreamt of school, let alone becoming a Doctor in the future. However, by divine forecast and prediction I am now a Public Health Physician Specialist in Medical Epidemiology.

Part of my reason for choosing medicine initially was to help save lives, but choosing public health was even better as many deaths in Africa are from preventable sources. My interest in research grew stronger and stronger as I realised that best practices were fast evading us in the quest to find solutions to our numerous problems. So I decided to move away from just clinical practice to something a bit more challenging: unravelling the basis of disease and helping to deepen our understanding of Africa’s own situation. The goal is to find simple but appropriate uses of technology to fight disease ignorance and poverty. This is what I stand for and what has driven me to participate in the Seeding Labs/Novartis Fellows program. 

Since 2006, my main area of research has been non-communicable disease epidemiology, in particular tobacco control, reproductive health issues, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. I also remain interested in communicable disease, in particular tuberculosis (TB). In this connection, I have secured funding to perform work in the African Tobacco Situation Analysis and secured a grant in collaboration with other sites for a study of type 2 diabetes among African immigrants. I have developed, secured funding for, and led research into genetic factors and immunology of pulmonary TB, identifying potential factors that influence TB disease susceptibility.

My ambition is to work in collaboration with multi-nationals and universities across Africa and the rest of the world. My place of employment at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) Department of Community Health and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), has given me a unique vantage point from which to undertake good scientific projects. I have acted as a focal person for some international collaborations in communicable diseases. I also have gained extensive experience in postgraduate and undergraduate teaching and research in Ghana, and have developed a wide network of contacts within Ghanaian education and research institutions.

My ultimate pleasure is to help break the cycle of poverty ignorance and disease that plague our continent, and to ensure that they are eliminated in Africa and other poor countries around the globe. As a Novartis/Seeding Labs Fellow, I hope to gain further training in the use of scientific equipment and critical research for the benefit of KNUST and Ghana. I also wish to strengthen the teaching and learning of science in resource-poor settings. I hope to establish a network of scientific researchers who have the potential to strengthen north-south collaboration in research, especially related to tropical diseases.

The skills acquired as a Fellow will help me be able to fight poverty, improve the skills of my students and colleagues, enhance personal efficacy and help me achieve my ultimate goal of becoming an international public health consultant of great repute fighting to help Ghana (Africa) in particular to break away from the doldrums of an overburdened continent of simply poor health and economic indicators.