Ifeoma Ezenyi
Country (Nationality)
Nigeria
Grantee Title
Project: Malaria research capacity strengthening for antimalarial drug discovery
Grantee Description
Ifeoma Ezenyi holds a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and presently works in Nigeria as a Senior Research Fellow with the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development. Since completion of her doctoral studies in 2015 from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ifeoma has worked extensively in the field of drug discovery from natural products. Her main focus is the discovery of safe and effective alternatives for the treatment of malaria and she has identified antimalarial constituents of different medical plants and elucidated their effects. In the course of her career, Ifeoma has received sponsored training from the National Chemical Laboratory in India; Kumasi Center for Collaborative research in Ghana and The Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia. She is also a recipient of the prestigious L’Oreal UNESCO regional fellowship for women in Science (sub Saharan Africa) and an individual research grant from the International Foundation for Science, Sweden.
Project: Malaria research capacity strengthening for antimalarial drug discovery
Ifeoma will work with Vinay Verma and Shailja Singh of the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. During her stay, she will also visit the National Institute for Malaria Research to facilitate knowledge sharing on malaria research between their research groups. The scope of the project includes testing natural compound libraries to identify new leads and their parasitic targets. She will also receive training on handling and processing of clinical isolates and applying best practices in antimalarial research laboratory management.