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In April 2019 Advanced Courses and Scientific Conferences (ACSC) held a one-week course in South Africa entitled ‘Practical Aspects of Drug Discovery: At the Interface of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacology’.
The US Financial Times recently featured Kelly Chibale as an Innovator in Drug Discovery in Africa
KELLY CHIBALE: LEADING THE WAY IN AFRICAN DRUG DISCOVERY
The rag in Kelly Chibale’s rags-to-riches story is the lit one he used to put into a paraffin-filled tub so that he could study at night. Brought up amid violence and squalor in the Zambian copper belt settlement of Kabulanda — whose name, he says, literally denotes “sadness” — Mr Chibale has fashioned a successful career from a tough start.
UCT’S H3D DIRECTOR, KELLY CHIBALE, WINS SACI GOLD MEDAL AWARD AND IS HONOURED BY ASTMH; WARNS ABOUT THE BRAIN DRAIN OF AFRICAN SCIENTISTS
Professor Kelly Chibale, founder and director of the Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D, at the University of Cape Town (UCT), has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal for 2018 by the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) and honoured by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) with the 2018 Commemorative Fund Lecture.
Prof Kelly Chibale participated in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges meeting held in Berlin, Germany from 15-18 October 2018 and gave a Spotlight talk.
Drug discovery excellence is a critical prerequisite for success in drug development and remains a highly neglected area for the African continent. The lack of market incentives has biased drug discovery efforts globally away from diseases most prevalent in the developing world. Collaborative efforts of multidisciplinary teams – in drug discovery and other fields – shows that success and efficiency increases significantly when individual contributors combine their complementary capabilities. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. State-of-the-art approaches to implementing drug discovery projects, especially when the goal is to also build drug discovery capability on the African continent, need to be supported.
The founder and director of Africa’s first integrated drug discovery centre, Professor Kelly Chibale, has been named as one of Fortune magazine’s World’s Greatest Leaders for 2018.
Chibale, whose H3D centre at the University of Cape Town pioneers world-class drug discovery in Africa, has also become known for his pivotal work on malaria.
45. Kelly Chibale
Scientist, South Africa
In much of Africa, the infrastructure to support scientific research is sorely lacking. But Chibale is working to change that. The Zambian chemist has built H3D, Africa’s first integrated drug discovery center, at the University of Cape Town. His team now includes more than 90 researchers; they work out of state-of-the-art facilities thanks to partnerships with the Gates Foundation, Novartis, and South Africa’s government. H3D already has a potential drug for malaria in human trials.
