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Bioscience

Researcher

Dr. James Nyagwange

Post-Doc

KEMRI | Wellcome Trust

About

ames obtained his PhD identifying novel Theileria parva antigens for development of a subunit vaccine for control of East Coast fever in Africa, in the International Livestock Research Institute. He joined KEMRI-Wellcome in 2018, where his research focuses on designing, formulating and evaluating novel vaccines and vaccine platforms. He is also a fellow at the Pirbright Institute, UK, where his research focuses on evaluation of B cell immune responses and development of immunological toolkit.

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Current Work

My current research focuses on development and validation of serological assays including 1) multiplexing pathogens such as arboviruses for sero-surveillance through the Luminex platform. This involves identification of target antigens, construct design, expression and purification of the recombinant proteins and their conjugation for multiplex testing. 2) Development of viral neutralization protocols and ELISA protocols to study these viruses. Recently, contributed to the development of SARS-CoV-2 ELISA and neutralization assays, the former has been used extensively to determine seroprevalence of anti- SARS-CoV-2 IgG in different target groups and was the first in Africa to estimate the extent of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in this population. My research also focusses on SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody discovery including single B-cell sorting, B- cell sequencing, sequence analysis, recombinant antibody expression and assays to establish their functionality.

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Recent Publications

View all 30 publications
  1. 2026
    Comparison of capillary microsampling and venous blood for multi-pathogen serosurveillance

    Ombati, R. Kimani, M. Akech, et al.

    Sci Rep. 2026

  2. 2026
    A natural experiment in Kenya reveals durable immunosuppressive effects of early childhood malaria: a longitudinal cohort study

    Safari, M. S. Makori, T. O. Gicheru, et al.

    Elife. 2026; 14

  3. 2026
    Longitudinal evidence of differential pertussis antibody durability following natural infection among vaccinated children living in contrasting malaria transmission settings in coastal Kenya

    Safari, M. S. Gicheru, E. T. Mburu, et al.

    Vaccine. 2026; 88:128837

  4. 2026
    Heart-nosed bat alphacoronaviruses use human CEACAM6 to enter cells

    Gallo, G. Di Nardo, A. Lugano, et al.

    Nature. 2026; 653:180-189

  5. 2026
    Longitudinal Epidemiology and Variant Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in Coastal Kenya (2020-2025): Clinical Features and Wave Patterns

    Lambisia, A. W. Nyiro, J. Githinji, et al.

    Open Forum Infect Dis. 2026; 13:ofag084