Member SpotlightsUtilizing Science to Promote Public Health Charles F.L. Mbakaya, MSc A Member Since April 2004  As a Senior Research Officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in the Department of Centre for Public Health Research (CPHR), Charles Mbakaya has directed a variety of different public health related projects. He is a member of a multi-disciplinary research unit with expertise in nutrition, environmental and occupational health, health systems, epidemiology, demorgraphy, biostatistics, sociology and dental health. His research team has made major contributions in environmental and occupational health research as well as in nutrition as it relates to HIV/AIDS and school-aged children. Mr. Mbakaya was inspired to pursue a scientific career early on in his education by his teachers. He worked hard to improve his mediocre mathematics and chemistry grades and eventually became top in his class in these two subjects during his final year of secondary schooling. He was thrilled by early scientific discoveries that were made using very rudimentary technologies: he admired Isaac Newton for his work on gravitational force and laws of motion, and he was especially inspired by the simplicity with which penicillin was discovered. These seminal discoveries led Mr. Mbakaya to believe that even as a young African scientist that he could also make a significant contribution towards enhancing scientific knowledge for human betterment. While at the University of Nairobi, Mr. Mbakaya was introduced to the concept that “life was nothing but a chemical process” during one of his introductory chemistry lectures. This idea was very captivating and started him thinking how he could apply chemistry to health-related research. He became particularly interested in the chemistry of sexually transmitted diseases. In the summer of 1984 while on leave from college and helping on his father’s lorry as a loader, Mr. Mbakaya learned from some of the other workers that villagers were using herbs to treat sexually transmitted diseases. This tidbit led to an undergraduate research project involving the phytochemical analysis of the herb, Maesa Lanciolata. During this project, he learned various extraction and isolation techniques including, thin layer chromatography (TLC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). At the end of the year, Mr. Mbakaya isolated and identified two pure compounds from the plant. Unfortunately, he was unable to demonstrate the biochemical activity of these extracts (the role of active metabolites was not investigated). Despite this disappointment, he was determined to continue his chemistry education. For his postgraduate work in advanced analytical chemistry, Mr. Mbakaya attended Bristol University’s School of Chemistry in the United Kingdom and earned a Master’s of Science degree. His thesis project involved developing a new method for determining lead, copper and nickel in environmental and biological samples. This method, Flow Injection Analysis, included pre-concentrating the cations on a resin called Amberlite-IRC718 before flushing them into a flame atomic spectrophotometer coupled to a graphite furnace to further lower the detection limits. This multi-step technique allowed for the separation of interfering alkaline earth metals before analysis, readily yielding results at the ppb levels. During his time at Bristol, Mr. Mbakaya regularly read a selection of different chemistry journals. An article entitled, “Zinc Deficiency—the Neglected Factor” by Bryce-Smith at Reading University further motivated him into exploring how basic science could help combat HIV/AIDS in Africa where the disease had reached epidemic proportions. The article stated that zinc deficiency was becoming common in Britain and the situation might be worse in developing countries. The paper’s author also said that for reasons that were only partly understood, zinc had useful anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer properties. Furthermore, the author claimed that zinc deficiency symptoms were similar to those of AIDS. These observations encouraged Mr. Mbakaya to conduct research on zinc and HIV/AIDS when he returned to Kenya in 1990. When Mr. Mbakaya joined KEMRI, his first research proposal was to investigate the possible role of zinc and dioxins in mother-to child HIV transmission. At that time, a major emphasis was being placed on behavior modification strategies, and he was unable to attract any funding for his project. It was not until 2000 that Mr. Mbakaya was able to obtain a research grant from a Spanish company called Catalysis to investigate the role micronutrient zinc might play in HIV/AIDS transmission, progression and management in Kenya. When recruiting patients for that study, his team came across some interesting observations. Four women whose husbands had had died of HIV/AIDS were themselves actually HIV negative although they had unprotected sex with these men. These women also had very high serum zinc levels. This finding seemed to support the hypothesis linking serum zinc status and HIV disease. Mr.Mbakaya has become even more convinced of a direct relationship after recent publications have investigated zinc’s role in human immunity. Apart from being a useful component in hundreds of diverse enzymes, zinc is also responsible for the switch between cell-mediated and humoral immunity. Mr.Mbakaya believes that because the HIV negative women in his study had adequate zinc levels they were able to mount a cellular rather than humoral immune response, thereby enabling them to clear the virus without necessarily producing HIV antibodies. Based upon his preliminary findings, Mr. Mbakaya is convinced that micronutrient zinc might be very critical in HIV transmission dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. He proposes that it might be responsible for determining the rate of progression to AIDS. He believes that his research could result in better ways to both manage the spread of HIV and prevent HIV infection. In his opinion, micronutrient zinc could be the scientific weapon that has been underutilized in the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where nutritional deficiencies are quite rampant in the general population. As scientists are busy looking and failing to get effective AIDS vaccines, he’s convinced that through appropriate scientific observations, Mother-Nature might already be showing the way to best solve the HIV/AIDS puzzle. Mr. Mbakaya has thus applied for and was granted a small research grant by the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) of Kenya, which operates under the Office of the President. His project will be to conduct further research towards reformulating VIUSID into a more potent HIV/AIDS management nutritional product—complete with zinc supplementation—customized for the Kenyan populace. This is a unique achievement as no research scientist had ever been supported by NACC to undertake basic research on HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Mr. Mbakay believes that The Science Advisory Board could help the world in shaping and refocusing scientific research directions to areas that could lead to more concrete strategies to effectively combat HIV/AIDS. “Regrettably, the epidemic has been around too long and has prematurely taken a toll on our beloved ones. [It has] not even spared professors, doctors, researchers, engineers, athletes, actors, lawyers, economists, children, the jobless and down trodden in society as well as the poor and mighty nations of the world. Overall, I particularly draw inner strength and dedicate my research to all who have succumbed to this disease around the world, some of whom were my dearest friends and relatives who at their time of death wished I could have used my scientific knowledge to save their lives!” When not thinking about his next research project, Mr. Mbakaya enjoys watching football, thrilling movies, heavyweight boxing and tennis. He likes to swim and dance to a wide range of music. Mr. Mbakaya loves to travel and has traveled extensively within Africa and parts of Europe. He hopes to someday visit the United States, especially the state of California and the city of Miami. He has friends all over the world and is an avid correspondent with them. ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Member Spotlights ] |
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