Welcome to the BioStruct-Africa Kenya Lab

AI-Enabled Structural Biology for Drug and Vaccine Discovery

Therapeutic Research Focus

Our research addresses three major health challenges affecting Africa: malaria, schistosomiasis, and drug-resistant bacterial infections.

By integrating AI-enabled structural biology with experimental approaches, we investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying these conditions with a focus on nutrient uptake in malaria and schistosomiasis parasites and mechanisms of acid resistance in drug-resistant bacteria, with the goal of identifying small-molecule and nanobody therapeutics.

We also pursue structure-guided vaccine design targeting Schistosoma mansoni calpain.

MALARIA

ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

SCHISTOSOMIASIS

Research Expertise & Tools

AI & Computational Methods

Protein structure prediction & analysis

Supporting platform: AlphaFold (Google DeepMind)

Molecular modelling & interactions

Supporting platform: Schrödinger Suite | OpenBind

Experimental Methods

X-ray crystallography

Cryo-electron microscopy

Stability measurements (GFP-TS)

Functional assay development

Selected Publications

Nji, E. AlphaFold can help African researchers to do cutting-edge structural biology. Nature 649, 555 (2026).
Bicer, D., Matsuoka, R., Moumbock, A. F. A., Sukumar, P., Suades, A., Cheruvara, H., Quigley, A., Drew, D., Pardon, E., Steyaert, J., Henderson, P. J. F., Caffrey, M., Griese, J. J. & Nji, E. Structural basis of specific lysine transport by Pseudomonas aeruginosa permease LysP. Nat. Commun. 17, 37 (2026).
Nji, E., Cramer, K. C., Rüffin, N. V., Fofana, F. G., Heiba, W. & Sankhe, S. Leveraging AlphaFold for innovation and sustainable health research in Africa. Nat. Commun. 16, 1334 (2025).

Nji, E., Moumbock, A. F. A., Cramer, K. C., Rüffin, N. V., Davis, J., Asojo, O. A., Griese, J. J., Larbi, A. A. & Fodje, M. N. Supporting structural biologists in Africa requires resources and capacity building. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 31, 1814–1815 (2024).
Martinez-Molledo, M., Nji, E. & Reyes, N. Structural insights into lysophospholipid brain uptake mechanism and its inhibition by human cell-fusogen syncytin 2. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 29, 604–612 (2022).
Chatzikyriakidou, Y., Ahn, D.-H., Nji, E. & Drew, D. The GFP thermal shift assay for screening ligand and lipid interactions to solute carrier transporters. Nat. Protoc. 16, 5357–5376 (2021).

Thulasingam, M., Orellana, L., Nji, E., Ahmad, S., Rinaldo-Matthis, A. & Haeggström, J. Z. Crystal structures of human MGST2 reveal synchronized conformational changes regulating catalysis. Nat. Commun. 12, 1728 (2021).
Qureshi, A. A., Suades, A., Matsuoka, R., Brock, J., McComas, S. E., Nji, E., Orellana, L., Claesson, M., Delemotte, L. & Drew, D. The molecular basis for sugar import in malaria parasites. Nature 578, 321–325 (2020).
Nji, E., Gulati, A., Qureshi, A. A., Coincon, M. & Drew, D. Structural basis for the delivery of activated sialic acid into the Golgi for sialylation. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 26, 415–423 (2019).
Nji, E., Chatzikyriakidou, Y., Landreh, M. & Drew, D. An engineered thermal-shift screen reveals specific lipid preferences of eukaryotic and prokaryotic membrane proteins. Nat. Commun. 9, 4253 (2018).
Uzdavinys, P., Coinçon, M., Nji, E., Ndi, M., Winkelmann, I., von Ballmoos, C. & Drew, D. Dissecting the proton transport pathway in electrogenic Na+/H+ antiporters. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E1101–E1110 (2017).
Amofa, J. O. et al. BioStruct-Africa’s scalable framework for AlphaFold-enabled research training and sustainable workforce development in Africa. Commun. Biol. 9, 321 (2026).
Sankhe, S. et al. BioStruct-Africa’s capacity-building workshops as a model for advancing the emerging community of structural biologists in Africa. Commun. Chem. 8, 118 (2025).