FCE Director
Centre for Advanced Clinical Immunology in Kenya CACIK
About Lucy Ochola, PhD
Career path
How did you first get involved in immunology?
Thank you so much for the question and I also appreciate a chance to share with you my journey as a scientist and explain why I joined the FCE FOCIS group. My first interaction with immunology was when I joined my PhD program. This was a joint research program between the Kenya Medical Research Institution-Wellcome Trust (KEMRI-WRTP) in Kenya and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland. I was introduced to malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The amazing thing about this parasite is that it can actually exist and survive in red blood cells where it can avoid the whole immune system. What was fascinating is how a parasite can survive in a cell and then go on to cause major illnesses. When I started doing the study, cerebral malaria was quite high. We saw a lot of severe cases in children. That was my first touch with immunology and what even drove me into the research field of malaria.
Tell us about the research you’re most proud of.
Over the last twenty-two years, I’ve been involved in research. I mentioned starting with malaria, but I moved into helminth infections (schistosomiasis), and these are basically worms that infest human beings. These parasites basically still plague the Sub-Saharan Africa and Kenya, in particular. What has been exciting is being able to understand how this worm infection, which lives in snails, can infect humans who wade through infested waters. One of the studies my team at KIPRE did, which was quite unique, is that we were able to infect animals with Schistosoma mansoni and then evaluate vaccine efficacy.
In this small study, we looked at the human papilloma virus vaccine and found, using animal models, that it’s important to clear the parasites prior to giving the actual vaccine. I think that’s a very interesting finding. If we look within the human perspective, in countries like Kenya and other endemic regions, people harbor these parasites and most of the times they go undetected. What we’re really pushing for is that we need to detect the presence of these parasites prior to even bringing in a vaccine. Maybe what I’m arguing is we need more studies around that and am really just pushing for advocacy for removal of parasites prior to treatment with vaccines.
What is the most important trait a researcher should possess and why?
I feel one should always have an inquisitive and exploitative mind. For me as a scientist personally, I’m always curious, you know, how is it that these parasites survive, even in humans? That’s what keeps driving me to just go deeper into research and to delve in further to get solutions to solve the problems of parasitic disease, for instance.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?Â
If I look back on my journey in research, I was fortunate to have been exposed to a very dynamic lab. I think that has helped me now to get grounded in research, in science. And it also brought out the inquisitive mind that I mentioned. I also feel you have to push beyond borders and be able to just find your space. When I started doing research, I could always look back and say there were very few women in research and I remember my mentors being men, but that didn’t stop me. I gathered all the experience I could from them. It also made me realize you can work within whichever environment you find yourself in. That gave me a good grounding and from there I was able to build and then just push myself forward and then become a mentor to other ladies who are interested in research. That has always been my driving force and that’s now why I’m trying to work in that space to empower more women in research.
What advice would you give to young researchers just starting out in the field?
I think you have to be passionate. You have to be hardworking. The playing field for women is different. As women, I’ve found that I’ve always had to work twice as hard. I don’t find it’s an eight to five job. I have to work even beyond, so you might ask me this question later, but for me, having a young family, you have to put the children to bed first, then you step up after eight o’clock in the evening to sit down to work. It’s just driving the passion, the mind to stay focused. The earlier years for me were settling down. Grant writing can also prove a challenge, but I found over the years it’s just getting access to the right networks, and once you have the right networks, then you can open doors for yourself. I learned that later in research, but that’s the story I  share with other people to give them the motivation to push on.
Describe your average workday.
You have to be flexible. Let me just start by saying I love the research space because for me it’s always been a kind of flexible place, but it just means you have to put in more hours. I wake up in the morning doing school time. I have to take my children to school. From there it’s going to work, settling into my own work to make sure I’ve answered all the emails, looked at the various questions I need to look at, respond to them. Once I’ve done that, I sit with my team to catch up on where they are, in terms of the research questions we’re looking at. Do they have any challenges that we need to address? Then, in between that, I think of what papers can I write, who are the people I should reach out to in case I’m experiencing challenges. In Kenya, we may not have the flexibility in terms of, and I might be jumping the gun a little bit but allow me to say this. When it comes to accessing reagent supplies, things take twice as long. Sometimes you find that that also drags you down a bit, so you’re constantly having to reach out to different companies. Are you here with my equipment? Are you here with my supplies? Where’s the challenges? You also have to accommodate some of these delays in work and just find ways around them. Once I’ve met up with my people, we make sure everything’s in the right format and operating at the right level.
Then I pick up my children and later in the evening I get back to work. I have to balance research and administration, so sometimes, you’re pulled away to address administrative work. But I’m still passionate about the research. Once I’m done with administration, I’ll always come back and if there’s challenges in the lab, I find myself going into the lab to assist. It’s a very dynamic sort of space, but you have to have the level head to be able to move through and maneuver and balance all these different things, especially as a woman.
Personal Life
Can you tell me who do you most admire and why?
There are several people who have touched my lives in different ways. I’ll probably start with my parents first because they played a critical role in ensuring that education became part and parcel of our lives. And for them, they believed that that would give us a future. I think also growing up, back then more emphasis was put on boys in my community. But I remember my mom pushing and saying, no, even the girls can do it. If boys can do it, girls can do it better. I think that just gave us a good platform to go into the sciences, explore them.
Back then, science wasn’t a very rewarding subject. And even now it’s not even changed because people go more into arts, law, medicine, etc. But for me, I loved biology, loved chemistry, and for my time as a young child, I picked up the sciences and I stuck with them to the end. My parents have definitely played a key role. I also feel it’s a privilege and honor to work with different people. It’s all about building a good team. Right now, I’ve got a good team of technicians, master students and senior scientists who we create this bond with and within this environment we support each other. The working environment is critical to motivate you in your  work. I’m also happy about the diverse people I have met over the years. I belong to different societies. Prior to FOCIS, I was in the Kenya Society of Immunology. I’m networking within the Kenyan space, but I’m also working within the rest of the African region under the Federation of African Immunological societies. So a chance to interact with all these different groups is what motivates me to keep on doing what I’m doing as well.
What motivates you to work hard?
It’s just the team generally, the working environment, but you must get the right people. That also takes time because, when you look at the PhD, you’re being mentored, you’re being guided. But when you step out of that and you want to now create your own research niche, you have to make sure you have people who are like-minded, who have the passion that you have and are committed so they stick at this and say, we see a future. Not everybody has that same view. It’s just surrounding yourself with the right people who can then propel you forward and especially when you face challenges, you can discuss that with them. They can give you the right opinion and they move you forward. I have people within my environment where I work, but also beyond who I’m always throwing ideas at, different scientists who have walked  with me on this journey and from there, I can receive constant guidance. I can then keep going and not give up.
Do you have a favorite time management tool, something that helps you stay organized?
I think the Google calendar works well. I’m able to look at it daily and it also gives me alerts. That just guides me through the different appointments that I have.
Do you have a favorite vacation spot, somewhere you like to go every year to relax?
Nairobi is a fairly congested city, so I find getting out into the rural areas where you are away from traffic and in the fresh air, where you are at one with nature. Rural Kenya has enough places you can go to. That is where I would prefer to be, just away from the traffic and the noise, and in the fresh air.
Do you have a favorite beverage or drink?
Kenya is known for its tea, Kericho Tea. I tend to be more of a tea drinker and there’s a way we brew it, with milk and spices, and then you boil it all up. I don’t start my day without a cup of tea.
Do you have any hobbies, things that you enjoy doing outside of the work life?
Yes, my way to slow down is by baking. So, even as I’m talking to you, before I came to this meeting, I actually went in the kitchen to throw some cakes into the oven. Baking is my thing, cooking. I’m also a church goer, so sometimes I also teach Sunday School children. We work with adults, but it’s just nice to be in the children’s space because they just help you see things in perspective, and you have a good life with the children.
Work with FOCIS and FCE's
Switching gears, how did you first get involved with FOCIS?
It’s really just through the networks. I have a colleague who we used to work with when I was doing my PhD and she basically introduced me to Professor Elena Hsieh. This was via email. They just mentioned the center exists and asked if we would be interested in joining it? I thought this was a fantastic idea because for me, I do a lot of basic research and over the years I’ve really struggled to bring clinicians into my space. When FOCIS came to light, I thought this would be the best way to do it. It was through introduction from a friend and then Professor Hsieh telling me about what they do, that I was able to start up that process of trying to integrate with FOCIS.
How do you think FOCIS has changed your world?
Kenya is within Sub-Saharan Africa. I’ve been in research for twenty-two years and we do a lot of basic research. My background is biology, but the results of our findings are never really translated into clinical. For me, FOCIS is opening up my eyes and making me see how I can take my own results and apply them. How can I look at certain technologies? One technology I’m trying to look at is flow cytometry. It’s a tool that we use to measure different immune cells, widely used in the HIV field, but how can we apply this tool to diagnostic research in clinical medicine?
I’ve been able to open my mind and change my view and see how I can work better and improve my own research. It’s also allowed me to bring together different networks within Kenya. I’ve managed to include Dr. Jesse Gitaka from Mount Kenya University, Dr. Anne Barasa who works in the one of the biggest national hospitals in Nairobi. Th team includes members from Eldoret University, More recently, I met another clinician in the coastal region, which is maybe ten hours from Nairobi, and he’s keen to work with me. I’m seeing FOCIS being a center that will pull all these different entities together that I want to work with now to drive and improve diagnosis of different diseases, cancer, for instance. There’s the PIDs, the Primary Immunodeficient Diseases, which the doctors have talked about as being a problem in Kenya. I want to see how I can augment the research I do and support them in the work that we do. FOCIS is really just that. That’s how it’s opened up ideas for me.
If your colleague asked you why they should join FOCIS, what would you tell them?
If you are passionate about changing the health landscape in Kenya or any other country, I would tell them that FOCIS is for you. I attended a meeting in Cape Town last year and one of the presentations they were talking about involved the results they’re finding in animals and taking that knowledge and using it to solve human issues. FOCIS can open doors for you to think outside of the box. That’s what I would encourage them. That’s why I’d tell them to join FOCIS. I’ve not attended any FOCIS meetings before, so I’m looking forward to the meeting that’s coming up. That would be a better opportunity for me to really absorb the wide area of research that’s ongoing and see how I can form new partnerships and then bring those ideas and collaborations back home and apply them in my field.
We’re going to talk a little bit now about your FCE. Can you tell us about the research that you’re doing?
My background is mainly parasitology. I’ll break it up in two research areas that I work on. I do work on malaria. We have animal models in which we can infect with the malaria parasite. We can evaluate vaccines. We can test for novel diagnostics because we’re seeing some challenges with the current diagnostics that are available. The third one is drugs. Right now, there’s only Artemisinin as a combination therapy that’s widely used, but there’s been some levels of emerging resistance to the strain. What we are trying to do is keep ahead of the game and be able to find alternative drugs in case Artemisinin should fail. On the other side is schistosomiasis, which I said was a worm infection – my projects are really diverse – but I think when you’re a research scientist on the continent, you have to think outside the box to push your research agenda and keep it going. Under this helminth infection, what I’m doing is we’re developing novel diagnostic tools. Microscopy still remains the main way of detecting these parasites, but if today we are to have an intervention that would reduce the parasite burden, we’ll not be able to detect even one parasite. I’m working with different teams from my institution and even one of the partner institutions under my FOCIS center to then develop a more sensitive diagnostic test.
I’ve got another project where I’m working with investigators at Purdue University. The idea there is to develop what we call organ on a chip. So rather than use preclinical models, you can take different cells from different organs, like the liver and the gut, and put them into an in vitro setup, and then monitor a stage of the parasite eggs that seems to cause granulomas and a lot of immune response reactions transverses across these different tissues  But now to come home to the FOCIS Center, we have different groups involved. We have universities, we have research institutions like myself, and we have hospitals. One of the things that I’m now moving towards is that I’m keen on diagnostics.
I already mentioned the Mount Kenya University which is under Dr. Jesse Gitaka. I’ll be working very closely with him to set up a more effective tool for diagnosing either malaria or schistosomiasis. I’d mentioned earlier about the flow cytometry application in diagnosis and research. I’m going to also explore with the different partners in my consortium to see how we can train people with that tool. Joint projects where we can now find students to come in and do different things, like in the field of cancer, which is becoming a problem. I was talking to one of the clinicians in Mombasa and he said, ‘Lucy, we need this flow cytometer for us to be able to diagnose certain cancers.’ I’m hoping to bring him on board with the FOCIS FCE to best support him, to be able to come up with diagnostic tools that can support his own work in the hospital.
Do you have a specific dream goal for your FOCIS Center of Excellence? Something that you’d love to achieve if it were at all possible?
For me it’s just to enhance research, especially in the clinical field. Let’s not just treat patients. There are cases where we don’t have solutions. Mine is to find a homegrown solution that can support and augment the treatment, but also to prove to them that we can do it within our space. We have skills, we have trained personnel. I think this might be a wild dream, but we are all working in silos, so mine is just to hopefully enhance the partnership and strengthen the different levels of expertise that we have. We are also planning to set up, maybe in one of the universities that doesn’t have it, an immunology, master’s, or PhD program.
That means we can train more students in the field of immunology because again, I told you science is a field that is struggling. Through the FOCIS Center, we hope we can better enhance that. I believe in partnership. If I attend the FOCIS meeting, I can then open up models for us to have exchange programs where people can probably become lecturers, teach and just augment the work that we’re doing. I see building, strengthening immunology, improving the medical care in the country and believing that we can have solutions that we, as Kenyans, can support and enhance researchers.
What are your biggest challenges?Â
As scientists, we struggle with having enough local research grants. A lot of us have to look abroad for those grants, which obviously, you know, is very highly competitive. And the way to overcome that is to ensure you have those good networks, those good collaborations that can support you. We struggle because infrastructure’s not always the best. You have to wait for that one big grant that will bring in the big money that can buy the freezers, the centrifuges. In the lab where I work, a lot of the machines are pretty old. It’s through these joint funding projects that we got some of the equipment that we need in our lab.
We also have challenges with access to reagents. So those, believe it or not, take a minimum of two months. It could be even longer to get some of the other supplies that we need. And to import, like now I’m trying to import some parasites, that process of importation also creates bottlenecks for our own research. You just have to plan yourself well and at every point you also have to inform your collaborator. There’s going to be this delay, please bear with us, etc. That is what slows us down in terms of wanting to generate the research and answer those questions. There’s always that problem of funding supplies, reagents.
Why did you apply to be an FCE?
I find that if I don’t network, if I don’t look beyond my home here, I will perish as a scientist. In networking, especially with the FCE, I see opportunities to continue to build my research, to answer my own research questions that I have. I see opportunity and I don’t want to lose that. Networking would be critical for that and just strengthening the immunology in my country to then be able to find solutions to managing the different diseases that we have. I said I work with parasites, but look, I may not be a cancer immunologist, but I may be able to connect my colleagues who are working in that field to cancer immunologists, like through the FCE Center. It will open doors, not for myself alone, but for the team I’m working closely with.
Anything else to add?
I think it’s good to be able to share our experiences to encourage more people. One of the things I did was, because I worked with the Pan-African Immunology Network, I actually shared an outline of my FOCIS application. I’m hoping you’ll get more people from the continent applying to join the center. I can assure the team I’ll work closely within my country to support the FCE, but also within the continent because I think that’s the way to go. It took me a while to come back into research after I had the family, but I’m realizing if I do not network, I’ll definitely perish. Thank you very much. I thank the FOCIS team for supporting the application and for allowing us to join and be part of the family and the team.
Those are all the questions for today, thank you for your time.