The students and their projects

The second week is over and we have had a chance to hear the students presentations of their current projects. At the end we asked each of them to do a little drawing representing their project on the board of the lab. The final result can be seen in the picture.

Abba has studied the correlation between the relative length of the index and ring finger, which is determined by age 2 and correlates with the prenatal exposure to androgens, and other traits that are determined later on as the diameter of the wrist and hip circumferences. His passion is the study of memory retrieval.

Paulin is studying in Cameroon the potential of a plant (I’ll keep the name so no-one can steal his idea) in the war against those ticks that martyrize the cattle (and anyone who shares the path with them, I am the proof of that).

Lucille works evaluating the action of insecticides in Tanzania, doing lab and field studies to analyze their efficacy and safety.

Ngattu studies malaria, tuberculosis and meningitis from an epidemiologic point of view and searches for a better and quicker diagnose to reduce the risk of contagion.

Nelson works in Malawi analyzing the efficacy of malaria drugs in pregnant women and uses genetic markers to study the resistance to drugs in Plasmodium (the little creature that generates the disease). He is already thinking about using Drosophila as a model to study malaria and the resistance to drugs.

Sam has studied the torsion angle of the humerus (the representation of the anatomy department of the Kampala International University –KIU- , co-organizer of the course, is noticeable). Using this course as a start-up, a Masters in Anatomy and Neurobiology is going to begin at KIU, and Sam wants to continue his research comparing the number of synapsis in lab animals vs animals from the wild. Will wild animals have more synapsis? and, if they do, will they be smarter?

Steven is characterizing the proteins involved in odor perception in tse-tse fly and is very interested in the possibility of using Drosophila as a model system.

Jimmy, another anatomist, has studied the epidemiology of atherosclerosis (the deposit of fat plaques in the arteries).

Yunusa, the youngster of the course, is still thinking what to do for his Master’s project. He has a great passion for public health and wants to do a PhD in a good institution studying mental dementia in HIV patients.

Iliya Ezekiel is interested in the study of epilepsy and sleep. Before the course, he was thinking in an experimental setting to study spatial learning in rats. Now he is considering a change of system.

Sylviane, also from Cameroon, is analyzing the effect of traditional remedies to treat epilepsy.

Maureen, who has come all the way from Kenya with her little baby, studies the epidemiology of diverse diseases and the distribution of the different mosquito species that transmit them.

Okpanachi Alfred is studying diabetes type II.

Goji has studied the effect of an African plant extract in the level of glucose in the blood using rats to which they have induced hyperglycemia.

Bolaji Samuel wants to study the effects of the combined use of alcohol and cannabis and he is also studying the possibility of using Drosophila as a model.

Joseph’s research focuses on the analysis of the effect of some traditional plant extracts used to treat erectile dysfunction.

(Students, please, forgive me if I misplaced something or if trying to summarize I simplified your work so much that the description is almost wrong)