A female student of the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Sandra Musujusu, has developed an alternative treatment for breast cancer
A female student of the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Sandra Musujusu, has developed an alternative treatment for breast cancer. The scientific breakthrough might lead to a lasting solution in the treatment of breast cancer prevalent among women world over.
This was made known on Tuesday in Abuja when the World Bank Education Director, Dr Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi, with his team visited the University as part of his assessment tour of the 10 African centres of excellence (ACE).
The World Bank has committed about $10 billion for the ACE project in Nigeria, as part of efforts to encourage the conduct of cutting-edge research and specialisation of the beneficiaries institutions in specific development problems faced in Nigeria and indeed the African continent.
Sandra Musujusu’s research was done using macromolecular science which is aimed at developing bio-degradable polymer material which could be used as alternative for the treatment of breast cancer in the near future. The Sierra-Leonian born national revealed that her research focuses on triple negative breast cancer which is the aggressive sub-type of breast cancer that is common with women from African ancestry.
According to her, the research is being conducted under the sponsorship of the Pan African Materials Institute (PAMI). The institute gave an award for her research.
“My research is actually centred on the development of bio-degradable polymers for treatment of breast cancer. I will be focusing on triple negative breast cancer which is actually the aggressive sub-type of breast cancer that is common with women from African ancestry.”
I believe there is a bright future for Africa, and as a woman there is much more we can do if we are empowered. This award given to me by PAMI has empowered me to face my studies with more confidence and actually contribute to the frontier of knowledge and move Africa forward,” said Sandra Musujusu.
The African University of Science and Technology (AUST) which is a member of the Nelson Mandela Institutes, is a Pan-African institution, established in response to a request from several African Heads of State, to give life to a request made by then President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, that the World Bank and the African Union work together to create strong Pan-African centres of excellence to improve sub-Saharan Africa’s capacity in Science and Technology.
Thus a network of the now so-called Nelson Mandela Research Institutes was born. AUST in Abuja is the first of such Centers of Excellence to be established.
