A Nigerian and indigene of Getso town, in Gwarzo local government, Kano state, Dr Sulaiman Sadi Ibrahim has become the first Nigerian to receive the prestigious Welcome Trust Career Development award.
The award from the Wellcome Trust (a charitable organization located in London, United Kingdom), to the tune of £969,680 (more than half a billion Naira) will allow him (and his research group) to carry out a project, spanning eight (8) years; improve the infrastructural capacity in Nigeria; and support both undergraduates and postgraduate students.
Previously, Dr Sulaiman was a Wellcome Trust fellow, between 2017-2019 (the first Nigerian to receive such award), from which he created the most comprehensive, functioning molecular biology laboratory in a public university in northern Nigeria.
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. Anybody who knows Dr Ibrahim won’t be surprised that he got this once-in-a-life time award to carry out an important piece of research that will target the malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, improving the way they are controlled.
“This is very important because Nigeria alone has the highest burden of malaria in the world, accounting for 27% of all global cases, and 31% of all deaths due to malaria. This is also a timely good news, in the background of the current protracted industrial strike by the public universities across Nigeria, proving that lecturers in public universities are internationally competitive, contrary to the opinions in some quarters,” he was praised.
Meanwhile, in this current research grant he aims to understand how malaria-transmitting mosquitoes adapt to the rising temperatures due to global warming (climate change); “the genetic mechanisms they use for such adaptations, and how the mechanisms can be targeted for the control of the mosquitoes, reducing the burden of malaria in the world.