David is a PhD (Human Genetics) student at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB), Wits University, Johannesburg. He is part of the Wits-H3A/GSK ADME team – studying variation in the ADME genes in African populations.
Before joining Wits, David completed his BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Makerere University in 2017 and thereafter joined the Core laboratories at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) for a three-month internship in Bioinformatics supervised by Dr. Jonathan Kayondo. David then continued his development at UVRI by doing a one-year strategic internship in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology under the Makerere University/UVRI Center for Excellence in Infection and Immunity (MUII-Plus) Research and Training programme. This unique opportunity enabled him to receive focused hands-on training in Unix, Python and R programming, NGS data analysis, Metagenomics, and pipeline development among other skills. Most importantly, the strategic internship offered David an opportunity to receive mentorship from leading Bioinformatics scientists in Uganda and H3ABioNet at large.
David is excited about the opportunity to contribute to pharmacogenomics research in Africa and precision medicine in general, starting with the fascinating work under the Wits-H3A/GSK ADME project. He is also very passionate about mentoring fellow young scientists that are considering career choices in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.