From ILRI to Liverpool – and back

ILRI biomedical scientist Lydiah M. Kisoo wins an international MSC Fellowship Grant to study at the University of Liverpool.

ILRI visiting research assistant Lydiah Kisoo has won an international MSC fellowship grant from Wellcome Trust to pursue a master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Liverpool.

The United Kingdom-based foundation, Wellcome Trust, funds scientific research in various fields. For Kisoo, the grant is an opportunity to study dairy cattle as potential reservoirs of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) to humans. She was first introduced to the field of research and AMR as a Graduate Research Intern for ILRI, where she worked for a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council-funded project on zoonoses and AMR surveillance. Last year she became a visiting research assistant.

Of her research proposal, Kisoo describes how she was taken by the issue of AMR and decided to take it further by incorporating zoonoses, in which she had a background. ‘I thought it would be good to look at AMR in a One Health approach where I look at livestock, environment, and humans in an integrated way’, she says. The implications of dairy cattle and livestock as potential carriers of AMR are far-reaching. If large populations consume the compromised dairy or livestock, the potential transmission of AMR can become exacerbated, causing a public health threat.

After the first year of her fellowship at Liverpool, Kisoo will return to ILRI for the 18-month research portion of her program. She is most looking forward to applying the knowledge and skills she acquires throughout the fellowship to her home country. For her, producing reliable research is critical in informing policymakers and stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions to tackling AMR as a public health threat.

In the future, she would like to obtain her PhD. ‘I look forward to advancing my studies and career so that I can do much more advanced research in this particular field’, she says.

Further reading:

For more on ILRI's work on AMR, see here. 

For more on ILRI's work on One Health, see here. 

Photo credit: Lydiah Kisoo