About Us
Chief Scientific Officer’s Note
Dr. Collen Masimirembwa (Dphil, PhD)
Africa faces numerous challenges in its quest for a decent life for the majority of its people. These obstacles arise from both natural and historical events that manifest themselves in gross economic, political and social insecurity on the continent. Through complex inter-related mechanisms, these factors result in poverty, industrial backwardness, and human misery unacceptable in the context of global human development. This tragic situation is most apparent in the healthcare system. Africa has a great disease burden with major killers like malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis claiming over 3 million lives every year. Combined with a poor healthcare infrastructure and limited access to medicines, the life expectancy in most African countries is a mere 40-50 year span compared to the over 70 years in developed countries. Despite numerous international efforts to rescue African countries from such a sad situation, things seem to have become worse and the continent is currently in a state of collapse. Analysis of previous and current efforts shows the marginal role that African people themselves play in these rescue recipes which have, in numerous cases, turned out to be inappropriate and sometimes detrimental.
AiBST was founded on a unique strategy to jumpstart biomedical scientists in Africa to levels comparable to those in developed countries. Strengthening of scientific and technical know-how will be biased towards basic biomedical research for the discovery and development of medicines against diseases common in Africa. To appreciate the importance of this approach, one has to understand that no drug, including those used against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS was found in Africa. Despite the very often-sentimental claims that we have good scientists, the fact of the matter is that there are very few scientists in Africa of the caliber that can discover and develop drugs. Most of the so called African researchers spend most of their time collecting samples, counting the infected or the dead, or doing routine analyses supervised by scientists in developed countries. The challenge for biomedical advancement is therefore not only technical but the need to train a new generation of inno vative scientists. Due to limited material and intellectual resources, the Spirit of Collaboration is AiBST’s functional backbone. Teamwork with government functions, national, regional, continental and international biomedical institutes and pharmaceutical companies will ensure that AiBST carries out relevant research at the forefront of medical sciences. AiBST has chosen the area of pharmaceutical sciences since it is pivotal in the discovery of new drugs and optimal use of current medicines. We hope that our strategy will be a template approach in addressing other important areas in medical research.
With this, I welcome you to the AiBST´s website. AiBST´s team of young scientists is doing research at levels that will set the foundation for research and development (R&D) based pharmaceutical industry in Africa.
Collen Masimirembwa (PhD, DPhil)
Chief Scientific Officer & Founder
