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- Ms. Jennifer Afua Ofori, PhD
Ms. Jennifer Afua Ofori, PhD
Research Scientist
Office : ARI Room 31
Email : jofori763@gmail.com
Degrees : BSc, M.Phil., PhD (Biochemistry), University of Ghana, Ghana
Achievements
Awards & Recognitions
Active Affiliations
Research
Research Interests
Current Research
Animal health has been a major constraint to livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa. Food producing animals such as cattle, goats and sheep are of economic importance in sub-Saharan Africa as they fulfil multiple roles ranging from draught power to providing manure, milk, and meat. However, diseases in these animals affect productivity and food security in most African countries. Also, it is important to investigate diseases in animals as these may serve as potential reservoirs for many parasites that infect humans. My research is focused on studying African trypanosome infections in Ghanaian food-producing animals over their lifetime in areas with and without high tsetse challenge and identifying possible biomarkers for effective diagnosis of animal trypanosomiasis. Also, my research group is interested in the molecular and cell biology of tick-borne parasites.
Currently, our study is assessing animal African trypanosomes and tick-borne parasites co-infection prevalence in cattle at different ecological zones in Greater Accra Region, Ghana and to also assess the effect of co-infections on animal cytokine production as there is quite scanty information on co-infection prevalence and their effect on cytokine dynamics in Ghana. Also, we are working on surveying and characterizing tick microbiome across the coastal savannah zone of Ghana using the meta-genomic approach as there is limited information on the diversity of tick species that infest livestock, their associated microbial diversity, and tick-borne pathogens. Information obtained from these studies will aid in providing new avenues to be explored for animal trypanosome and tick-borne disease control as well as add-on knowledge to the animal health portfolio especially in the area of One Health as a global priority. The metagenomics study is being sponsored by the Matsumae International Foundation in Japan with Professor Naotoshi Tsuji as the host scientist, Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Japan. My group is accepting inquiries from collaborators, prospective interns, undergraduate students and postgraduate students (Masters Level).
Brief Profile
Dr. Jennifer Afua Ofori is a Research Scientist of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Animal Research Institute (CSIR-ARI). She holds both PhD and M. Phil degrees in Biochemistry from the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana, Legon. Her expertise includes nested and quantitative polymerase chain reaction, molecular cloning for identification and characterization of parasites, protozoan culturing (P. falciparum and T. brucei), Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent assay, western blot, protein expression among others. Her research focuses on the area of pathogen biology relative to animal health. She is more interested in the molecular biology of African trypanosomes which is the cause of human and animal African trypanosomiasis as well as the molecular diagnosis and host-pathogen interactions of tick-borne pathogens among domestic animals. As a young early-career researcher, she is currently undertaking a project which is assessing animal African trypanosomes and tick-borne parasites co-infection prevalence in cattle at different ecological zones in Greater Accra region, Ghana. As part of the project objectives, she is also assessing the effect of co-infections on animal cytokine production as there is quite scanty information on co-infection prevalence and their effect on cytokine dynamics in Ghana. She is a fellow of The Matsumae International Foundation in Japan, a research fellowship granted to early-career researchers and she is working in the area of tick-borne diseases in the laboratory of Professor Naotoshi Tsuji, Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Japan. She has supervised undergraduate and postgraduate molecular biology and microbiology practical sessions at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana (UG) during her Graduate and Teaching Assistantships. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Radford University College lecturing Biochemistry. She is very enthusiastic about her field of work and is committed to contributing to finding solutions to the challenges in the area of infectious diseases through teaching and research.Publications
List of current publications (Peer-reviewed)
