Affiliateship: 2018 - 2022
Cohort 3
Country (Nationality)
Tanzania
Discipline
Biosciences
Bio
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Dr Nkya is a lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) and a honorary lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). Dr Nkya has a background in Microbiology and Chemistry (BSc) and Molecular Biology (MSc). As part of her MSc training she conducted research in malaria focusing on molecular resistant markers of drug resistance in P. falciparum. In 2008, Dr Nkya spent six months at Kemri Wellcome Trust, Kilifi, Mombasa, Kenya as an intern studying the role of cytoadherence of infected red blood cells in severe malaria. Since joining MUHAS as a research scientist she has participated in a number of Sickle cell disease (SCD) projects and since 2009 has led SCD genetic research. The primary focus of her PhD (Human genetics) was the genetic determinants of fetal haemoglobin: as part of this she established a genetic database of more than 1700 individuals with SCD with well described SCD phenotypes and undertook the first Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) analysis of an African population in collaboration with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. |