Dr Joseph Mwanzia Nguta is a Veterinary Surgeon by training, and Pharmacologist and Toxicologist by specialisation. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHPT), University of Nairobi with twelve (12) years’ experience in undergraduate teaching, postgraduate teaching and supervision. He holds MSc and PhD qualifications in Natural Product Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Nairobi. In addition, he holds Postdoctoral qualifications from Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, where he pursued drug discovery against zoonotic tuberculosis from natural products of plant biodiversity. Specifically, he utilised whole cell assay and sub-cellular targets for lead compound identification and structural characterisation of lead antimycobacterial compounds with rapid kill kinetics against latent, intracellular and active tuberculosis. His studies culminated in characterisation of a new source steroidal sapogenin of spirostane type, solagenin (25S)-6α-hydroxy-5α-spirostan-3-one), with selective activity (SI index: 65) against the pathogenic Mycobacterium bovis (ATCC® 35720™) strain. Prior to the postdoctoral award by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) through Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), he was a doctoral and later a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHPT), University of Nairobi, under support from Carnegie supported Regional Initiative in Science and Education, African Natural Products Network (RISE-AFNNET) University of Nairobi Node, investigating medicinal plants for antiprotozoal activity.
Dr Nguta have supervised three (3) Doctoral (PhD) students and eleven (11) Master of Science (MSc) students to completion. He has published forty two (42) articles in leading peer reviewed journals and he has fourteen (14) PubMed appearances. He has attended sixty one (61) workshops/symposia and presented thirty nine (39) papers/abstracts in both local and international scientific conferences. He has a cumulative citation of 793, h-index of 13 and i10-index of 17. He has attracted several research/development grants and educational resources from local and global institutions. He has continued to offer community service, as a Veterinary Surgeon and also as a member of society. Dr Nguta was ranked position ninety seven (97) among the top one hundred (100) Kenyan Scientist by Webmetrics in March 2015 (http://www.webometrics.info/en/node/106).
Dr Nguta is the Country coordinator at One Health Ethics and Regulatory Procedures project (OHEARP), and the Country Liason Officer at Global One Health Initiative (GOHi). He was the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Young Ambassador for Science to Kenya, 2017-2020 (http://www.asm.org/index.php/this-week-in-international). Since 2017, he was appointed as an Early Career Reviewer (ECR), by the Centre for Scientific Review (CSR), National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethseda USA. He has special interests in Natural product pharmacology and toxicology, specifically, antimicrobial drug discovery from microbial and floral diversity.
