Christian Happi

Christian Happi is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases,[1] both at Redeemer’s University. He is known for leading the team of scientists that used genomic sequencing to identify a single point of infection from an animal reservoir to a human in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.[2] His research focus is on infectious diseases, including malaria, Lassa fever, Ebola virus disease, HIV, and SARS-CoV-2.

Christian Happi in 2021

Early life and education

Professor Happi was born in Sangmélima, Cameroon, fourth of seven children.[3] He graduated from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon, in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with honors.[4] He obtained his PhD from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2000 and went on to Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Fellow from 2000 to 2003.[4] He subsequently worked at Harvard University as a Research Scientist from 2004 to 2007.[4] He became an adjunct Professor at Harvard University School of Public Health between 2007–2011.

Research and career

Happi has led several public health sequencing efforts in Africa. His team rapidly sequenced Nigeria’s first Ebola case, and up to 20 cases a day throughout the outbreak.[5][6] He sequenced Lassa fever strains in a 2018 outbreak, helping researchers to conclude that the Lassa fever outbreak was due to spread by rats, rather than a mutation which had made it easier to spread between people.[7][8] He also played significant roles in genomics efforts such as 1000 Genomes Project[9] and H3Africa.[10] More recently he has led efforts for SARS-CoV-2 in Nigeria.[11][12]

In 2020 he gave a TED talk called A virus detection network to stop the next pandemic.[13]

Dr. Happi is an advocate for open science and is a sitting advisor of Open Therapeutics and its open science platform, Therapoid.

Awards and honors

His awards and honors include;[4]

  • 2020 Bailey K. Ashford Medal[14][15]
  • 2019 HUGO African Prize[16]
  • 2011 & 2012, ExxonMobil Malaria Leadership Fellow
  • 2011, Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award
  • 2010, Scholarship to Second Annual Course on Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Global Health, University of Washington Seattle (USA)
  • 2010, Boroughs Wellcome and Bill & Melinda Gates Awards, Genome Epidemiology Meeting (GEM), Wellcome Trust Conference Centre, Hinxton (UK)
  • 2009 – 2014, Wellcome Trust Research Grant Award
  • 2009, European Union-Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Senior Research Fellowship Award (The Hague, Netherlands)
  • 2008, Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee Africa Health Research Organization (AHRO) (Ghana)
  • 2007, Turner Biosciences Research Award (USA)
  • 2005 – 2008, Plasmodium falciparum Pathogenesis and Applied Genomics Research Award, World Bank/UNICEF/WHO/TDR
  • 2004, Chair, Molecular Parasitology session, 50th Annual Meeting and Anniversary of the ASTMH, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • 2003 – 2005, Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 4th MIM Pan African conference on Malaria (Cameroon)
  • 1999, Best Postgraduate Student, PIMRAT, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 1998, Wellcome Trust Award to the 1st Gordon Conference on Malaria (Oxford, UK)
  • 1995, Best International Postgraduate Student, International Student association (ISA), University of Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 1994 – 1997, Organization of African Unity (OAU) Research and Training Scholarship
  • 1988 – 1993, Cameroon Government Scholarship

Personal life

He is married and has three children.[3]

References
  1. "African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases". Archived from the original on 2015-08-01. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  2. Gire, S. K.; Goba, A.; Andersen, K. G.; Sealfon, R. S. G.; Park, D. J.; Kanneh, L.; Jalloh, S.; Momoh, M.; Fullah, M.; Dudas, G.; Wohl, S.; Moses, L. M.; Yozwiak, N. L.; Winnicki, S.; Matranga, C. B.; Malboeuf, C. M.; Qu, J.; Gladden, A. D.; Schaffner, S. F.; Yang, X.; Jiang, P.-P.; Nekoui, M.; Colubri, A.; Coomber, M. R.; Fonnie, M.; Moigboi, A.; Gbakie, M.; Kamara, F. K.; Tucker, V.; Konuwa, E.; Saffa, S.; Sellu, J.; Jalloh, A. A.; Kovoma, A.; Koninga, J.; Mustapha, I.; Kargbo, K.; Foday, M.; Yillah, M.; Kanneh, F.; Robert, W.; Massally, J. L. B.; Chapman, S. B.; Bochicchio, J.; Murphy, C.; Nusbaum, C.; Young, S.; Birren, B. W.; Grant, D. S.; Scheiffelin, J. S.; Lander, E. S.; Happi, C.; Gevao, S. M.; Gnirke, A.; Rambaut, A.; Garry, R. F.; Khan, S. H.; Sabeti, P. C. (28 August 2014). "Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak". Science. 345 (6202): 1369–1372. Bibcode:2014Sci...345.1369G. doi:10.1126/science.1259657. PMC 4431643. PMID 25214632.
  3. Munshi, Neil (February 19, 2021). "Christian Happi: 'With pathogens, we need to play offence'". Financial Times.
  4. "Christian Happi | Havard T.H. Chan School of Public Health". Archived from the original on 2015-01-23.
  5. Guth, Jamie (23 September 2014). "TDR | Ebola virus genome sequencing data published". TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases).
  6. Guth, Jamie (23 September 2014). "Support to Ebola in the field and laboratory". TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases).
  7. Maxmen, Amy (2018-10-17). "Nigeria's largest Lassa fever outbreak sparked by rats". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07024-6. S2CID 58396192.
  8. Yong, Ed (February 28, 2018). "Why is Nigeria Experiencing a Record-High Outbreak of Lassa Fever?". The Atlantic.
  9. Auton, Adam; Abecasis, Gonçalo R.; Altshuler, David M.; Durbin, Richard M.; Abecasis, Gonçalo R.; Bentley, David R.; Chakravarti, Aravinda; Clark, Andrew G.; Donnelly, Peter; Eichler, Evan E.; Flicek, Paul (30 September 2015). "A global reference for human genetic variation". Nature. 526 (7571): 68–74. Bibcode:2015Natur.526...68T. doi:10.1038/nature15393. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4750478. PMID 26432245.
  10. Pennisi, Elizabeth (February 4, 2021). "Africans begin to take the reins of research into their own genomes". Science Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04.
  11. "Nigerian scientists have identified seven lineages of SARS-CoV-2". Archived from the original on 2020-09-07.
  12. "The Impact of African scientists: How years of building scientific capacity in Africa have been a real game changer in the response to COVID-19". World Bank Blog. January 6, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-01-07.
  13. "Christian Happi | Speaker | TED". Archived from the original on 2020-05-11.
  14. "PROFESSOR HAPPI BAGS 2020 BAILEY K.ASHFORD MEDAL IN TROPICAL MEDICINE". November 19, 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-02-17.
  15. "ASTMH Bailey K. Ashford Medal". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  16. Kristian, Andersen (May 2, 2019). "Christian Happi wins 2019 HUGO African Prize". Archived from the original on 2019-06-18.
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