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Supporting structural biologists in Africa requires resources and capacity building

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 31, pages 1814–1815 (2024)Cite this article

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Structural biology beats at the heart of modern science. It reveals the molecular mechanisms underlying disease processes, facilitating drug and vaccine development, and improving existing therapies. Beyond healthcare, it has an important role in agriculture, biotechnology, food safety and environmental sustainability. Therefore, structural biology is integral to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including good health and well-being (SDG 3), zero hunger (SDG 2) and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). The recent awarding of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind, for their pioneering work on protein structure prediction and the development of AlphaFold, and to David Baker, for his groundbreaking contributions to protein design, reveal how central structural biology is to scientific progress.

Structural biology is particularly important in Africa, since the continent faces significant health challenges, including neglected diseases, a high burden of infectious diseases, droughts and lack of clean water. By understanding the mechanisms of action of drug targets such as the malaria parasite sugar transporter protein, researchers can create more effective therapies1,2. Similarly, structural studies of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme have paved the way for new treatments against drug-resistant strains. Structures of the chloroquine resistance transporter protein in the malaria parasite have helped researchers understand how the parasite develops resistance to chloroquine. This breakthrough will enable the development of methods to restore the effectiveness of chloroquine in treating malaria3. Structural biology aids in vaccine design, as seen in the COVID-19 response4. Outside healthcare, structural biology techniques have helped address agricultural issues, such as disease-resistant crops5, environmental sustainability6 and plastics degradation for environmental remediation6.

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Acknowledgements

E.N. is funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 222999/Z/21/Z) and is a recipient of the Google award for “Support for Socially Impactful Research Enabled by AlphaFold.” K.C.C. and N.V.R. did not receive funding for this study. We would like to extend our gratitude to the selected participants of the workshop, as well as those who were not selected but graciously consented to the processing of their data for this publication. We also want to thank the Swedish Research Council (grant number 2022-02985 to J.J.G.) and Formas (grant number 2022-02341 to J.J.G.) for sponsoring the workshop. In addition, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to J. Mason of Google DeepMind for organizing an insightful and impactful presentation, along with a valuable Q&A session. We also extend our thanks to O. Kovalevskiy and R. Evans for delivering the Google DeepMind lecture and for addressing the participants’ questions about AlphaFold. Our thanks also go to W. Miller and J. Rodrigues from Schrödinger for delivering an engaging lecture and demonstration on small-molecule screening. Finally, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to S. Tata and the entire staff at Krystal Palace Hotel, Douala, Cameroon, for their invaluable support in ensuring the smooth running of the workshop.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioStruct-Africa, Huddinge, Sweden

    Emmanuel Nji, Aurélien F. A. Moumbock, Amma A. Larbi & Michel N. Fodje

  2. BioStruct-Africa, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana

    Emmanuel Nji, Aurélien F. A. Moumbock, Amma A. Larbi & Michel N. Fodje

  3. Department of Parasitology and Microbiology, Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Emmanuel Nji

  4. Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Aurélien F. A. Moumbock

  5. University of Bonn, Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, Bonn, Germany

    Katharina C. Cramer & Nicolas V. Rüffin

  6. Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Neuroscience & Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA

    Jamaine Davis

  7. Dartmouth Cancer Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Oluwatoyin A. Asojo

  8. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Julia J. Griese

  9. Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

    Amma A. Larbi

  10. Canadian Light Source, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Michel N. Fodje

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  1. Emmanuel Nji
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  2. Aurélien F. A. Moumbock
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  8. Amma A. Larbi
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  9. Michel N. Fodje
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Contributions

E.N. conceptualized the paper. E.N. wrote the first draft of the manuscript with help from M.N.F. and editing from O.A., K.C.C., N.V.R and J.J.G. E.N. and A.F.A.M. collected the application data with help from J.D., and A.A.L., K.C.C., and N.V.R. analyzed the application data and were responsible for writing the analysis of the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emmanuel Nji.

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Competing interests

E.N. is the cofounder and CEO of BioStruct-Africa. K.C.C. and N.V.R. have no affiliation with BioStruct-Africa. To maintain impartiality, K.C.C. and N.V.R. conducted the analysis of the workshop data. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nji, E., Moumbock, A.F.A., Cramer, K.C. et al. Supporting structural biologists in Africa requires resources and capacity building. Nat Struct Mol Biol 31, 1814–1815 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01438-9

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