LAB LEADER

He joined WACCBIP in 2016 as WACCBIP-DELTAS postdoctoral fellow working on the discovery of genes with possible functions that makes them suitable as either vaccine candidates or drug targets.

This was after his PhD study in the Division of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. BSc. Laboratory technology (First Class Honours) from University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

He serve as a co-investigator and coordinate the TIBA-Ghana project, which seeks to understand the impact of non-falciparum species on Malaria in Ghana. He was recently awarded the Crick African Network (CAN) fellowship for the career accelerator grant.

He is passionate about science, enjoys intellectual discussions, advocate for effective science communication and community engagement.

He enjoy reading and writing poems, reading history books, sightseeing, jogging, etc. His career aim is to build a new generation of scientists who will solve key infectious disease problems in Africa.

“The best way to honour a hero/heroine is to break his/her records”

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Dr. Mutungi, a Kenyan, holds a PhD in Medical Sciences in Infection Research. His research is focused on unravelling the malaria parasite biology to discover novel malaria antigens that can serve as vaccine and drug targets.

He graduated from Egerton University, Kenya, with a First-Class Honors in Bsc. Biomedical Science and Technology in 2005. In 2008, he competitively won a Japanese government (Monbukagakusho (MEXT)) scholarship for postgraduate studies in Japan.

From 2008 to 2014, he studied for his MSc and PhD at Nagasaki University, The Institute of Tropical Medicine (NEKKEN), in the lab of Prof. Osamu Kaneko, researching on the molecular mechanisms of host cell invasion by malaria parasites. After PhD, from 2015 to 2018, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at The University of Tokyo, in the lab of Prof. Noboru Mizushima, researching on autophagy conjugation systems of Plasmodium and Toxoplasma gondii.

Having spent a total of ten years in Japan, he was highly motivated to return home, Africa, to join fellow African biomedical scientists based in Africa in initiating and developing home-grown interventions for infectious diseases.

In 2019 he joined the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), at the University of Ghana, under the TIBA partnership, working closely with Dr. Yaw Aniweh and under Prof. Gordon Awandare. Dr. Mutungi is keen in establishing and participating in national, regional and global multi-disciplinary research collaborations and to develop into a world class independent scientist, leader, mentor, policy formulation and implementation capacities to innovate local solutions to Africa’s health challenges. His hobby is photography. At personal level, he has a bi-racial nuclear family and enjoys social, racial and cultural diversity

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My research interest is in the discovery of novel lead antimalarial compounds using laboratory and clinical isolates of P. falciparum. Additionally, I am also interested in the discovery of new antimalarial drug targets, elucidation of the mechanism of action and resistance of antimalarial compounds in P. falciparum parasites.

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Jonathan Suurbaar graduated from the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale-Ghana, with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry. Jonathan is currently pursuing an MPhil in Molecular Cell Biology of Infectious Diseases, with special interest in malaria vaccinology.

His MPhil thesis focuses on the development and characterization of immune response to the PfRH5 complex of Plasmodium falciparum. In collaboration with the Jenner institute of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, He aims to successfully assess and prioritize immune response to different constructs of PfRH5 vaccine complex.

Jonathan enjoys pencil art and graphic designing for communication.

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