Ghana
The DDU has been working with researchers and institutes in Ghana since 2019.
Prof. Richard Amewu and Prof. Ian Gilbert met at a conference, and after an initial visit to Prof. Amewu’s labs we realised that we were in a position to support his ideas for his lab, the Drug Innovation Group. Since then we have been partnering with multiple researchers and institutes in Ghana to help them improve their drug discovery capabilities.
2025: Mode of Action
In 2025, Prof. Linda Amoah was awarded 2 years of funding for “Further Development of Antimalarial Drug Discovery Capability in Ghana” from The Gates Foundation. This is to support establishment of Mode of Action studies in Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, University of Ghana. Prof. Amoah and her team will work in Dundee with Profs. Marcus Lee and Susan Wyllie, learning new techniques and transferring them back to NMIMR.
This work builds upon the “Supporting a Drug Discovery Hub Development in Ghana” funding previously provided, and allows further aspects of drug discovery to become established in Ghana.
2023: Intra-Ghana Mobility Funds
One issue highlighted in the Institutional Reps group was the lack of funding for students to move between institutions in Ghana. Small pots of funding would allow institutions with more facilities to host students from other labs to complete small research projects. DDU secured funding to support a number of small projects like this in 2023-24 and 2024-25. So far there have been 4 recipients of funds to move between labs in Ghana.
2022: Development of a Drug Discovery Hub in Ghana
The University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) received a 3 year grant from Gates Foundation in 2022, which aimed to support the development of a drug discovery hub in Ghana.
Centred around anti-malarial drug discovery, the grant allowed the first drug discovery programme in Ghana to include chemistry, biology and DMPK. Infrastructure development included redevelopment of the Department of Chemistry labs at University of Ghana, and the establishment of a drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) facility in KNUST.
Supporting partners are the DDU, H3D, and MMV.
Image shows the University of Ghana Vice Chancellor meeting representatives of the institutions involved in “Supporting a Drug Discovery Hub Development in Ghana’.
2020: Academy of Medical Sciences Networking
University of Dundee and Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, University of Ghana, received an Academy of Medical Sciences GCRF Networking Award. A meeting in Ghana was planned for late 2020, bringing together the scientists working in drug discovery throughout Ghana. However, due to travel restrictions we had our first meeting virtually in December 2020. During this meeting, teams from each institute in Ghana presented their drug discovery research and capabilities and we discussed the barriers that the researchers in Ghana faced.
From this meeting a number of working groups were formed – one which brought together a representative from relevant groups in each institution, and a series of more practical working groups. University of Dundee supported these virtual groups, arranging meetings and developing training.
Once travel restrictions were lifted, we held the in-person meeting in Accra in March 2022, where all members came together and updated on progress in the past two years.
2019: Cryptosporidiosis
Senyo Botchie joined the Pawlowic Lab as a WCAIR Trainee from Dr Irene Ayi's lab at Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR). Senyo visited for 9 months and learned the basics of Cryptosporidium detection, in vitro culture, microscopy, and drug discovery.
University of Dundee Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded this project to continue at Dr Ayi's lab in Ghana. Consumables and equipment were purchased and sent to Ghana, allowing Senyo and colleagues to analyse over 200 clinical samples for the presence of Cryptosporidium. Approximately 30% of samples analysed were positive for Cryptosporidium, suggesting that more research is needed to understand the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in Ghana. Further details about the project can be found on the Pawlowic lab site.
In 2023, Senyo was awarded a further £10,000 from WCAIR to establish an in vitro high content phemotypic screening system for anti-cryptosporidial natural products. Details of which can be found on the NMIMR website.
2019: University of Dundee Global Challenges Research Fund Grants
Our first visit was to multiple institutions across Ghana. Organised by one of our trainees, Dr Benjamin Harley, we visited University of Ghana (Department of Chemistry and Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, NMIMR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). This allowed us to see the infrastructure and support available for drug discovery at each of these institutions.
Following this visit, we successfully applied for small pilot project funds from University of Dundee GCRF and started to develop collaborations.
