Malaria and immunity

Understanding mutations in the malaria parasite gives us an insight how it escapes the immune system, as well as the mechanisms of drug resistance. This molecular work also helps find better candidates for malaria vaccines. In the long term, surveillance of markers of resistance informs national drug policy.

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Isabella Oyier serves as the Deputy Executive Director, Kilifi and Head of the Biosciences Department at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program (KWTRP). She is also Professor of Molecular Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford; and a Calestous Juma Science Leadership Fellow, a Grand Challenges program that supports outstanding scientists in countries across Africa to strengthen the pan-African R&D ecosystem.

Oyier’s current research focuses on integrating malaria molecular epidemiology into routine surveillance in Kenya, an initiative that partners with the Division of National Malaria Programme to implement malaria molecular surveillance activities in the country. She co-leads a Wellcome-funded project across the Wellcome Major International Programs (AHRI, CIDRI-A, KWTRP, MLW, MORU and OUCRU), focusing on real-time pathogen tracking of arboviruses (dengue and chikungunya) and antimicrobial resistance (of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis) using genomics surveillance.

Oyier led and coordinated the KWTRP COVID-19 testing for the Coastal region of Kenya and the regional COVID-19 genomic surveillance reference lab for Africa CDC and WHO-Afro. She is currently coordinating the scale-up of COVID-19 immunological surveillance in the East Africa region, to determine genetic variants with immune escape potential.