Dr Nono Komguep Awarded Flair Fellowship

Dr Justin Nono Komguep was one of seven University of Cape Town (UCT) scholars to be awarded the inaugural 2019 cohort of Future Leaders – African Independent Research (FLAIR) Fellowships. The 2 year fellowships focus on early-career researchers whose science focuses on a need in Africa.

FLAIR is a programme started by African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and The Royal Society, supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The awards aim to assist early-career scientists in developing their careers and establishing their own research groups.

Dr Nono Komguep was awarded up to £150 000 per year (around R2.75 million) with a support programme to assist in his development as an independent researcher. He will also receive mentoring and networking opportunities in Africa and in the United Kingdom in hopes of establishing further collaborations.

Dr Nono Komguep and the other awardees met in Naivasha near Nairobi last week to be honoured.

Dr Komguep Nono is the leader of the newly established Division of Immunology’s Helminth Immunobiology group. He researches genetic and microbial differences in children who are more resistant to schistosomiasis. Through this research he hopes to identify a mechanistic weak point in transmission to better control the disease. Dr Komguep Nono also aims to uses the FLAIR fellowship to launch state-of-the-art biomedical training in helminth research for African students and scientists.

Twenty one FLAIR fellows have been selected with fifteen of them from South Africa and seven from UCT. Find out more about the awardees - Inaugural African fellowships for young UCT scholars

Article by Bonamy Holtak