PAAU Academic Staff, Dr. Amlabu, Wins 2023 ARISE-PP Grant »

A Senior Academic Staff and the malaria research group leader at the Genomics and Molecular Biotechnology Research and Training Laboratory of the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, Dr. Emmanuel Amlabu, has won the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence-Pilot Program (ARISE-PP) grant.

Dr. Amlabu’s grant of $205,000 has been awarded for his research on the ‘Development of novel antimalarial therapeutics targeting Plasmodium falciparum lipid-binding proteins.’

The African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence-Pilot Program (ARISE-PP) which aims at curbing malaria in Africa is funded by the European Union and implemented by the African Academy of Sciences.
The European Commission and the African Union Commission also support it.

Dr. Emmanuel Amlabu of Prince Abubakar Audu University and leader of the research project is to be hosted as a visiting scientist at the Africa Centre of Excellence for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology (ACENTDFB) of the Ahmadu Bellow University (ABU), Zaria.

The ACENTDFB is a World Bank-funded African Centre of Excellence on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology at ABU, Zaria.

The Centre functions with the mandate to promote forensic cutting-edge research and development of manpower for tropical diseases.

This research project is positioned to also strengthen cross and interdisciplinary collaboration between Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba (PAAU) and ABU, Zaria.

Being primarily an academic at Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU), Anyigba, Dr Amlabu’s project will provide research and training opportunities for other researchers including postgraduate students at Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba.

To Nigeria and the wider world, this research project is carried out with the overarching aim to curb and possibly, contribute to the eradication of malaria in Africa.

Malaria is a major malaise in Africa leading to the death of an estimated 600,000 people annually. With the identification of Plasmodium Falciparum as a principal causal agent of Malaria Fever, Dr E. Amlabu’s team would engage highly sophisticated research equipment such as Glms ribozyme knock-down and CRIPR-Cas9 conditional knockout cutting-edge technologies.

Methodologies such as super-resolution microscopy imaging, gene cloning, coimmunoprecipitation assays, sequencing of clinical parasite strains, Mass Spectrometry, Protein overexpression and purification techniques, to analyze the genes coding Plasmodium falciparum lipid-binding proteins (PFLBPs) which is conjectured to facilitate penetration of the human red blood cells. With the collaboration of other experts such as Professor E. O. Balogun- an expert on structural biology, it is hoped that Dr Amlabu will deploy the knowledge from the analysis to design inhibitors to ‘develop new drug molecules against sensitive and drug-resistant p. falciparum isolates.’

The lead researcher Dr. Emmanuel Amlabu is a Senior Academic Staff of Prince Abubakar Audu University, Aniygba. He has won many national and international awards.

He is a leading researcher in the understanding of molecular biology of malaria parasite invasion of human red blood cells and has attracted the National Universities Communion (NUC) and Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVC) Awards.

A WACCBIP-DELTAS fellow at the West African Centre for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP0, University of Ghana, a Crick African Network (CAN) Fellow at WACCBIP-UG and the Francis Crick Institute, UK. During his research at WACCBIP/Crick, he profiled a pipeline of merozoite proteins for vaccine development and precise drug targeting.

Dr Amlabu is passionate about promoting a cutting-edge research culture in Africa and creating opportunities for the next generation of scientists for a robust research tradition in Africa.