Daniel Muthui Kiboi
Country (Nationality)
Kenya
Grantee Title
Malaria
Grantee Description
Dr. Kiboi is a Kenyan. He completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya. He later won a prestigious Wellcome Trust-DELTAS Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Kiboi research interest is analyzing the biochemistry of malaria parasites to expose biological molecules and pathways that could be exploited for interventions. He established a unique niche of selecting, phenotyping, and genotyping drug-resistant Plasmodium berghei parasites over his postgraduate years. He selected pools of drug-resistant parasites against the main long-acting drugs in the artemisinin-based combination therapies in clinical use and those under development. These drugs are lumefantrine, piperaquine, amodiaquine, and pyronaridine. Together with other scientists, he mapped promising mutations in proteins that are highly plausible mediators of drug transport and action. His PostDoc expanded his research focus to validating Plasmodium proteins associated with drug resistance and genes of interest to malaria immunity using both PlasmoGEM resources and the CRISPR/Cas9 system. He aims to maintain his focus on drug resistance mechanisms, focusing on the P. falciparum parasites. Dr. Kiboi is also a Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, JKUAT. He hopes to continue mentoring other young scientists. He has previously won several research grants/fellowships and published ten peer-review publications.