Full Name: Emma Peter Njau
Academic Rank: Lecturer
Institution: Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.
About
Emma Peter Njau is a scientist from Tanzania with a good background in molecular biology. She obtained her MSc in One health Molecular Biology from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in 2013. Her BSc is on Biotechnology and Laboratory Sciences from the same university. After her bachelor degree in 2008, Emma joined Sokoine University of Agriculture as a tutorial assistant. In 2010 she was promoted to an assistant lecturer position and later became a full lecturer in 2015 in the same university. Her major areas of teaching are laboratory sciences, molecular biology and biotechnology. Emma’s area of research is in molecular biology with a specific interest in molecular virology where she has been working with viruses causing livestock diseases that are directly involved in major economic losses to livestock keepers.
Research Areas
Emma’s area of research is in molecular biology with a specific interest in molecular virology where she has been working with viruses causing livestock diseases that are directly involved in major economic losses to livestock keepers.
In 2010 to 2012 she worked on foot and mouth disease virus, a causative agent for foot and mouth disease that affects all cloven hoofed animals resulting into decreased fertility and productivity of animals of economic importance including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. This project was under the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance that was funded by the Wellcome trust foundation.
Further Studies
In 2015, Emma joined Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology as a doctoral student. For her doctoral studies, she did her research on African Swine Fever Virus, which is another virus affecting the swine family resulting into massive pig losses hence a direct negative economic impact on pig farmers.
Research Projects
Her current project was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation through a Programme for Enhancing Health and Productivity of Livestock.
Emma won an ABCF Fellowship to conduct research at BecA-ILRI Nairobi Hub in 2017 on the topic titled “Screening, characterisation and complete genome sequencing of sylvatic and outbreak African Swine Fever Virus isolates in zones of Tanzania”. From this project, she reported the presence of a genotype XV strain of ASFV and produced the first full genome sequence of ASFV genotype II from Africa.
Contact: emmapeter@sua.ac.tz