Studying microbial ecosystems across human, environmental, and agricultural settings to understand how microbes influence health, immunity, and disease — closing critical knowledge gaps in globally underrepresented African microbiomes.
What the Team
Investigates
Mapping the diversity of gut, vaginal, oral, and skin microbiomes across African populations to build a continent-specific reference resource.
Investigating how microbial community composition influences susceptibility to infectious diseases including HIV, TB, and sexually transmitted infections.
Studying the vaginal microbiome and its role in reproductive health outcomes, preterm birth, fertility, and susceptibility to gynaecological infections.
Examining how diet, food systems, and nutritional status shape gut microbiome composition and influence immunity and child development in Africa.
Sampling microbial ecosystems in water, soil, and agricultural environments to understand transmission routes and environmental health risks.
Developing microbiome-based diagnostic tools and investigating microbiome modulation as a therapeutic strategy suited to African health systems.
From Field
to Discovery
Human, environmental, and agricultural samples collected across diverse African settings through community-based fieldwork and clinical partnerships.
DNA extraction, library preparation, and 16S rRNA or whole metagenome sequencing to characterise microbial community composition.
Bioinformatic pipelines for taxonomic classification, functional annotation, and diversity analysis of microbial communities at scale.
Linking microbiome data with clinical, immunological, nutritional, and environmental metadata to identify health-relevant associations.
Developing microbiome-informed diagnostics, therapeutic targets, and public health recommendations for African populations.
Key Areas of
Investigation
Research &
Partner Network
Developing metagenomic analysis pipelines and supporting large-scale microbial diversity studies.
Integrating microbiome data with immune profiling to understand host-microbe interactions and infection susceptibility.
Collaborating on vaginal microbiome studies linking microbial health to HIV risk and reproductive outcomes.
The broader consortium driving continent-wide microbiome research, data sharing, and African-led scientific leadership.
Meet the
Team
