About

I am currently pursuing my PhD degree with the University of Ghana and Medical Research Council the Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. My PhD work focuses on identifying genetic variants (SNPs and Haplotypes) that are associated with clinical heterogeneity of SCD phenotypes. 

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SCD has been a global health problem mainly affecting malaria-endemic settings such as Africa as the sickle cell allele confers protection against malaria. Annually, around 300000 to 400000 babies are born with sickle cell disease and Africa accounts for 80% of babies born with SCD.  

 

 

The genetic diversity between Africans and non-Africans indicates that findings from genomic studies conducted on Europeans cannot be directly applied to an African population. In light of these facts, genomic research on SCD has taken centre stage in Africa to understand the SCD pathophysiology and genetic factors contributing to the severity of SCD in African populations

 

One of the overarching objectives is identifying genetic modifiers that could explain some of the clinical heterogeneity of SCD phenotypes.