A team of Nigerian scientists has achieved a major scientific breakthrough in the global fight against malaria.
For the first time ever, researchers have successfully determined and deposited the crystal structure of Plasmodium falciparum transketolase bound to an inhibitor in the Protein Data Bank, a global repository for experimentally determined protein structures.
As culled from The Punch, the breakthrough was achieved at the laboratory of Dr Olatomide Fadare, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), and marks the first Protein Data Bank structure authored entirely by Nigerian scientists.
Immanent in the breakthrough is transketolase, a critical enzyme in Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for the deadliest form of malaria. For years, scientists around the world relied heavily on computational models to study this enzyme due to the absence of an experimentally determined crystal structure in the global database.
That limitation has now been overcome.
“We carried out protein engineering, produced the protein and successfully crystallised it,” Fadare said in an interview. “Getting to the point where you can create a crystal from your protein is highly advanced science.”
He explained that while African scientists have historically used data from the Protein Data Bank, deposits from the continent have been rare. “Most of the structures there were deposited by researchers from Western countries. You rarely find deposits from Africa. But now, instead of being users, we have become depositors.”
For Nigeria’s scientific community, the symbolism is powerful, but the implications are even greater.
Fadare’s research is driven by a pressing concern: the growing resistance of malaria parasites to existing treatments, including artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which remain the frontline defence across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
“You know, Fansidar used to be a three-tablet therapy taken at once. Over time, resistance developed. That is the story of malaria treatment,” he explained. “If we don’t continue to design new therapies that target different pathways, the parasite will always catch up with us.”
Originally trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Fadare has evolved into a leading medicinal chemist, integrating organic synthesis, bioinformatics and biological testing to design next-generation drug candidates.
By solving the enzyme’s crystal structure, scientists can now apply rational drug design crafting inhibitors with precision, guided by experimentally verified structural data rather than theoretical models.
The breakthrough emerged from a network of internationally based Nigerian scientists working across continents. Contributors include Dr Olawale Raimi of the University of Dundee; Dr Abiodun Ogunjimi of Mount Sinai Hospital; Prof Olubanke Ogunlana of Covenant University; and Dr Oluseyi A. Vanderpuye of Fayetteville State University, among others.
The cross-border collaboration underscores a growing trend of diaspora-driven partnerships aimed at strengthening research capacity within Nigeria.
Despite the scale of the achievement, Fadare revealed that the project has not yet received formal government or institutional funding.
“We have not received funding from the government or organisations yet, but we continue to push forward. If we get the right support, the impact will be massive,” he said.
He hopes the accomplishment will inspire increased investment in homegrown scientific innovation, and prove that cutting-edge pharmaceutical research is possible within Nigeria’s borders.
“With the right support, what we are doing can cause a tectonic shift in the pharmaceutical industry,” he added.
As malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives annually, disproportionately in Africa, the breakthrough offers not just a scientific milestone, but a statement of capability.
In cracking the structural code of a deadly parasite enzyme, Nigerian scientists have moved from the margins of global research to its frontlines and may have opened the door to the next generation of life-saving antimalarial drugs.
