Justin Komguep Nono

Dr Nono Komguep is presently a research Officer & Leader of the Unit of Immunobiology and Helminth Infections within the Institute of Medical research and Medicinal Plant studies of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation of Cameroon . He primarily engages in the teaching and training of young BSc, MSc, MD, PharmD and PhD fellows in Africa while researching on the Immunobiology of Helminth Infections, including Hookworms, Schistosomes and Tapeworms.

After an initial training at the department of Biochemistry and the Biotechnology Centre of the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon), Dr Nono Komguep completed a PhD thesis in Microbiology and Immunology at the Graduate School of Life Sciences of the University of Wuerzburg (Germany). Developing advanced cell culture systems of larvae and stem cells from parasitic helminths and combining such systems with host immune cell cultivation platforms, he uncovered novel molecules from parasitic helminths that modulate the host immune cells by mimicking the host factors. He was awarded the highest grade for his PhD thesis and graduated with the highest distinction "Summa Cum Laude".

He was then trained as a helminth immunologist using transgenic murine models within the Division of Immunology of the University of Cape Town (South Africa). This training has then helped him develop an investigative unit to pursue clinical helminth studies in Cameroon in tight collaboration with his expertise in preclinical and basic Helminth immunology. He was awarded a 2015 Claude Leon Fellowship, the 2016 Sydney Brenner Fellowship, a 2016 EDCTP Career Development Fellowship, a 2019 FLAIR Fellowship of the UK Royal Society and the African Academy of Sciences, a 2020 Merck KgaA research Grant and a 2020 Collaborative Grant of the UK Royal Society. He now researches on systems epidemiology and Immunopathogenesis of helminth infections.

He has led as a Senior Research Officer and Group Leader at the Division of Immunology , Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town a research team on the Immunobiology of Helminth Infections where he successfully trained and supervised 5 PhDs and 1 MSc. He has been on the Animal Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Science of the University of Cape Town from 2017 -2020 and is a regular ad hoc reviewer for several International Journals and funding agencies.

Dr Nono is co-chair of the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance and a member of both the South African Immunology Society and the German Society for Parasitology.