Dr. Michael Frimpong, a Molecular Immunologist lecturer at the Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has been named among the Ten (10) grantees of the 2020 African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI). 

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS), the United State National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are partnering under the auspices of the Coalition of African Research & Innovation (CARI) to establish the APTI.  Training will be at the intramural laboratories of NIH.

The main objective of APTI is to train a cadre of African scientists so they return to their home institutions and become scientific leaders in their communities, help solve Africa’s challenges in global health and development, and in turn become trainers of the next generation scientists. As such, APTI expects commitment from home institutions to provide a conducive research environment and dedicated research time for the fellows upon their return home. The fellow is expected to be part of an African regional and global web of collaborations connecting to their home institutions.

Dr. Frimpong who is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, KNUST, leads a team of young scientists working on developing and implementing novel and innovative diagnostic tests for detecting Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in resource limited settings.  He holds a PhD in Immunology from KNUST and a Postgraduate Certificate in Molecular diagnostics from the Ludwig-Maximilian’s University, Munich.

Since 2014, he has contributed considerably to the understanding, development of new diagnostic tools and treatment for NTDs particularly Buruli ulcer with over 20 peer reviewed articles on the topic in high impact journals.

Dr. Frimpong is a proud recipient of several grants including the prestigious European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP-CDF) grant for early career scientist, International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) grant, the African Researchers’ small grant program (SGPII) from the African Network of Neglected Tropical Diseases, TWAS-DFG Cooperation Visit Programme from The World Academy of Sciences and Germany Research Foundation.