Page 22 - Science in Africa

Doctor Richard Okoth Oduor Professor Felix Konotey-Ahulu

Africa’s buster of The pioneer of

climate change hereditary disease

octor Richard Okoth Oduor believes that modern rofessor Felix Konotey-Ahulu has made significant research
biotechnology, including genetic engineering, can play a role contributions over several decades covering no fewer than five
Din reducing incessant episodes of hunger and unemployment, Pareas of the life sciences: clinical, epidemiological, genetic, ethics,
often witnessed in Africa, by developing resilient crops capable of and medical controversy relating to the most common hereditary
overcoming the unrelenting effects of climate change. affliction in Africa (sickle-cell disease), as well as the most significant
Through his collaborative research with the University of Cape acquired disease (HIV/Aids) on the African continent.
Town and Agricultural Research Council, Doctor Oduor has He has published more than 390 articles, including inventions and
successfully developed transgenic dehydration-tolerant maize and discoveries, indicating the scope, depth and variety of what he has
sweet potato using genes isolated from the resurrection plant achieved. Professor Konotey-Ahulu’s phenomenal observational qualities
(Xerophyta viscosa) – a grass native to South Africa. enabled him to publish things relating to clinical medicine that had not
Although these transgenic crops are currently undergoing been described before.
greenhouse assessments ahead of confined field trials, this progress Professor Helen Ranney of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, for
marks the first attempt by a researcher based in a public academic instance, has said that “there is no single clinical experience in the US
institution in east and central Africa to become closer to developing comparable to that of Professor Konotey-Ahulu”.
a genetically modified crop targeting drought stress. Hardly surprising, as Professor Konotey-Ahulu not only supervised the
Further, Doctor Oduor holds a patent on a stress-inducible largest sickle-cell disease clinic in the world, but also hails from a family
promoter with the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which afflicted by sickle-cell disease. He traced the hereditary disease with
he used to develop the transgenic crops. named patients in his own family, generation by generation, for nine
Doctor Oduor is the chair of Kenya University’s Biotechnology generations back to 1670 – never before done for any hereditary disease.
Consortium, and, in 2016, he led a team of experts in biotechnology His superb undergraduate and postgraduate training in the UK
drawn from both public and private universities in Kenya to engage equipped him to probe the new pandemic Aids at grassroots across the
the Senate to reverse the decision of the National Assembly on the length and breadth of Africa and published his findings, which shed light
Natural Resources Bill (2015), which demanded that material-transfer on the epidemiology of the pandemic.
agreements on genetic resources be subjected to parliamentary He proved that the African green monkey could not have been the
approval. origin of the epidemic, and published his findings in a 243-page book,
Through the consortium, and driven by the desire to enhance What is Aids?
adoption of biotech crops and widen opportunities for employment He was the first to publish the names of sickle-cell disease (hereditary
in Kenya, he is currently sensitising members of the National rheumatism) in African tribal languages. When it comes to patient
Assembly of Kenya to lift the ban on the importation and management, Professor Konotey-Ahulu has shown that his patients,
consumption of genetically modified foods in Kenya imposed in 2012. whom he calls ACHEACHE (possessing ACHE genes from both parents),
He holds a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University can do extremely well if they are managed properly. He is the first (and
of Cape Town in South Africa, an MSc (Biotechnology) and BSc only) person to have arranged international conferences to demonstrate
(Biochemistry), both from Kenyatta University. the achievements of these patients.
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