May Root of Science News Roundup

What happens when African scientists tackle our continent's most pressing challenges? 

The May 2025 edition of our News Roundup, the first release under this segment, majorly focuses on innovation in health.

The first is an AI-powered, solar-powered device that diagnoses Malaria and dispenses medicine.

We also talk about Ghana's Yamachi Biotech and their creation of Africa's largest cancer genomic database. 

Our conservation segment unveils a wildlife trafficking crisis, which involves pangolins. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Headlines

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Root of Science News Roundup. This is the May 2025 edition. I'm your host, Anne.

Speaker 2: 0:10

Chisa and I am your co-host, Kasuva.

Speaker 3: 0:14

And I am the Root of the Science show producer. And before we get to the news, you probably want to know what's in it. So let's go to the headlines. Ghana's Yemachi Biotech builds Africa's largest cancer genomic database. A Ugandan student develops an AI-powered malaria device following a near-death experience. And did you know that in the past decade, pangolin scales have overtaken elephant tusks in the wildlife trafficking trade? We'll share more about this shortly, but first we'll have our news in detail.

Speaker 2: 0:52

All right, now let's talk about the exciting things that are happening in Uganda. A student by the name of Hakim Kakosa built a solar-powered AI malaria device called Maritest. This device does not need any lab tools and can diagnose malaria and give out medicine on its own. Plus, it tracks the medicine stock and sends real-time data to health officials. And sends real-time data to health officials.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Wow, this is so exciting, Cass. You know, when I thought about this conversation and what this guy was doing, I thought it's so novel, especially because many people in rural areas do not have access to this type of medication. Was this one of the reasons why you decided to share the story with us?

Speaker 2: 1:47

Exactly Anne, seeing that malaria is prevalent in countries like Uganda and other East African countries and Central African countries. So the student Hakim, in 2021, was diagnosed with malaria when he decided to build this device because of his experience. So I decided to share this, you know, to share the experience. Like you know, out of a challenging situation, it came up with an. It brought an opportunity for him, for others to also benefit from.

Speaker 3: 2:23

Wow, yeah, I think that's interesting For me. Cass and Anne, I think this thing is. This device is powerful in two ways. It has very, very good technology. One is it is solar powered, and we know that in rural areas, we have challenges with electricity and sometimes people experience those cuts. And this, being solar, it is renewable energy, so it is easily accessible. It is something that is not going to be depleted. We are all in the conversation of climate change and adapting to it, and I think this one is a sustainable model. Another thing is the use of AI. When you go to rural areas, most of them do not have enough personnel healthcare personnel to do some of these things, so AI makes it automatic. It can generate the results automatically, and I think this one is so creative. For me, in a place in Uganda, this will register a lot of results.

Speaker 2: 3:33

Exactly. And you know the other thing it's not just in rural areas where they suffer with like electricity. Even in urban areas, especially in a lot of African countries, even here in South Africa, we have load shedding. If you look at countries also like Zambia, there's also load shedding, you know. So there's a lot of power cuts, so this does not really have to depend on the electricity, which means we can get more done. And also, I think it's a huge assistant to also the healthcare takers, like caregivers rather. So it's a huge benefit to them because they don't have to constantly take blood, go to the lab test and we know how that would take to get back the results and then wait, but just have to do it and it's almost immediate. So that's exciting.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Yeah, that's so exciting, cass. Thank you for sharing that story. Exciting times ahead in Africa. So you told us of a story in uganda. I'm going to take us to the west, we're going to ghana. So in ghana uh, I hope I say this name right yamachi biotech has created africa's largest cancer genomic database.

Speaker 1: 4:55

This is is called the African Cancer Atlas, and its mission is to advance cancer treatment and research on the continent. It was founded in 2020 by Ghanaian immunologist, dr Yao Bediako, and the company aims to compile genetic and clinical information from 7,000 patients up to 7,000 patients. So the reason why um Yao Biryako actually started this was he was prompted to address the significant cancer burden in Africa, following again another personal story his own father's death from liver cancer and the issue that many of us Africans know that there's so much scarcity of cancer research in the African region. So the African Cancer Atlas will support drug discovery treatment research and really help reduce disparities in cancer outcomes. And the best part is that it's freely accessible to African researchers who are doing research in this part. So the nice thing is that it's also been supported.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So in March 2025, which is quite recent Rush announced its support for the project, which will also include pediatric cancer data, and this is really important, as 85% of pediatric cancer actually occurs in low and middle income countries, which was a shock to me. I did not know this. And with that it gets even worse because the survival rates are lower than high income countries. So this is a really, again, exciting time, because there's a lack of genomic data for Africans, and that's the reason why I actually thought the story was so important. And this we can date it back stemming to structural inequalities and you know there is some racial and racism that happens in health care and this hampers the development of treatment that is effective. So I think this advancement done by the team there really emphasizes the importance of inclusive research that creates better solutions.

Speaker 3: 7:12

Yeah, you are so right, Anne. As Africans, we have to accept that we have a huge burden of cancer and most of the time when someone suffers from cancer even someone close to you their are stories like they have to fly abroad to get treatment and we are like we are equally capable of what's happening in Africa. So I think this is a very good foundation to advance the research on cancer treatment in Africa and also to completely understand the challenge that we are dealing with so that we have those advancements put in place so that it can handle this and I'm happy we have international organizations supporting initiatives like this and, step by step, I think very soon Africa will be in a better place in handling situations like this. So this is a good one, anne.

Speaker 1: 8:07

It is.

Speaker 2: 8:08

And I think yeah, exactly, and also seeing like a lot of us have been affected by cancer, by in that we've lost loved ones to cancer, you know. And then coming back to the low income countries and then middle income countries, like you don't know how to navigate through the cancer crisis. You know, having a loved one, especially in low income families, suffering from cancer, like navigating through that is such a difficult time.

Speaker 1: 8:42

But seeing that Africans are coming in like with solutions for Africans, that's very exciting, you know yeah, it's super, super exciting and I wanted to say that I think in the past there was this misconception that like cancer was like a western disease or people of not Africans. But we're seeing now, because of so many lifestyle things and so many other effects, that cancer is really affecting us right here, close to home, and I know it because it affected somebody close to home in my family as well. So the fact that they're doing this and they're trying to create this genomic database is so important, and I love also the fact about children, because I know both. None of us are parents yet, but you can't even begin to imagine that tragedy of losing your child at such a young age to cancer. So the fact that this is really being done is it gives me goosebumps and, honestly, we need to have Dr Bediako on the show and we're going to talk more about him, about this work, right?

Speaker 3: 9:53

Yes, we need to have him definitely, and we need to really really get him to talk to us about this, because this is interesting. It affects a lot of people. He has to tell us more about this solution and what he thinks will happen, because this one is a big deal fantastic.

Speaker 1: 10:11

So if dr media call, you are listening. Somebody who knows him tell him we want him on the show okay.

Speaker 3: 10:22

So, um, we are moving to. We are moving to our did you Know? Section, and this one takes us to conservation, and in this month's Did you Know segment, we are talking about the trafficking of pangolin scales in comparison to elephant tusks. This is based on a recent released report by the Wildlife Justice Commission and the report is titled Disruption and Disarray an Analysis of Pangolin Scale in Ivory Trafficking Between 2015 to 2024. So that's a period of 10 years, and there are reports by the World Wildlife Fund that at least 20,000 African elephants are illegally killed for their tasks each year. That's a huge number. This statistic may lead you to believe that elephants are the most trafficked mammals in Africa Africa. However, according to African Wildlife Foundation, pangolins are actually the most trafficked, with an estimated 2.7 million being poached annually for their scales. Imagine 2.7 million, wow.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 11:42

So, from 2015 to 2024, over 370 tons of pangolin scales were seized globally, with consignments originating from various African countries. So Africa has there's a challenge. This is an African problem. From what we see, the Wildlife Justice Commission's report indicates that the trade in pangolin scales has now surpassed that of elephant tusks. But you may be curious about these scales. What exactly do they do? Why are they the most sold in the trafficking market and why are people the most are sold in in the in the trafficking market and why are people so interested in them?

Speaker 3: 12:31

Yeah, okay, um, uh, we might find out next month, um, about these girls and and what they do and why they are so needed. But, um, before we get to that, so you have to really keep in tune for next month's episode so that we can discuss that further. But then the reason I chose this was that most of the time when we talk about, uh, wildlife trafficking, we hear of elephant tasks. Every other time, that is the biggest conversation in trafficking, in poaching, we have elephants and elephants and elephants. So for the pangolin trafficking to come up, I think it is something people need to know about and there are already advancements to protect them. In South Africa, we have a rehabilitation center that was launched recently to protect them, which is the first of its kind in the world, and so that means this is a huge problem. People and you have to stay here and know what the scales are for.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Wow, teresa, listen, I hear the scales, but I want to know what is this animal?

Speaker 2: 13:54

I also want to know what this animal is, because I'm like, if it's being poached like that, what is it?

Speaker 1: 14:01

It's an animal. No, that's so exciting. What a different way, what a different thing, like I've really learned a lot and thank you for that. Did you know? Now I know.

Speaker 3: 14:13

Yeah, I cannot describe the animal, but okay, it is a very small animal like this. It is small, so and go Google it up, because I have the picture in my head.

Speaker 1: 14:26

But I can't show you and they're in south africa.

Speaker 3: 14:31

Then they're in south africa, several species of them. So now you'll find out oh, okay, okay, yay.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Thank you for the homework, by the way it is homework. I love it. So, um, ladies, thank you for teaching us, for giving us some information. Um, this is basically what we're going to be doing every single month, where we come together, we engage on a topic and we have this really candid conversations. Did you guys enjoy this?

Speaker 2: 15:00

I know I did totally enjoyed it and thank you so much for tuning in everyone thank you so much and see you next time remember to remain rooted in science bye.