Support African scientists for malaria prevention

We are a group of scientists from Makerere University, Uganda, and we are engaged with malaria prevention. Meet our team!

This project was conceived to be a part of the iGEM competition, a prestigious international synBiology event born in Massachusetts. We are the only team representing East Africa, a significant opportunity to make science more accessible to developing countries. The choice of preventing malaria comes from its endemic nature in the region, where more than 90% of malaria-related deaths occur. This has increased the need for better and more effective synthetic plant-based innovations that readily use natural assets. Hence, we have spent the last year working on synthesizing azadirachtin through genetic engineering, a limonoid known for its mosquito repelling nature, to produce an eco-friendly and affordable solar-based diffuser for malaria prevention.

This highlights the potential impact of our project, which we aim to present during the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris this year. This would allow us to promote the importance of science and research development in Africa and enhance future scientists' curiosity considering all the marvelous opportunities at reach.

This is why we need your support. So far, our sponsors have covered our registration fees for the competition (around $8000), but we still need to get to France. We have selected two people from our team to represent us during this competition, which allowed us to create a budget of around $4000 for them to attend.

Who is Omara Ronnic Rodgers? Our social media manager from Makerere University, in Uganda.

Who is Genesis Marquez? Our collaborator and advisor from Université Grenoble Alpes, France, helping us with the transfer of funds to Uganda.