Emmanuel Balogun vs. Sleeping Sickness

Tsetse flies, vectors of trypanosomiasis, thrive in the tropical climes of sub-Saharan Africa—killing thousands annually. But Nigerian scientist Emmanuel Balogun, a biochemist at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, is determined to thwart the parasites that cause sleeping sickness.
 
Learning that mosquitoes cannot transmit trypanosomiasis piqued his team’s curiosity. They found that mosquitoes have a glycoprotein in their gut that kills the trypanosomes—with important implications for their work developing new drugs to fight the disease.
 
Balogun also shares advice for early-career researchers: “Find mentors who live and work in the same geographical area as you, and who have achieved what you dream of achieving.”

Nature