On the way home from a church service, a friend asked Eunice Nduati to help with a small job in the KEMRI- Wellcome Trust laboratory in Nairobi.

As she observed the routine laboratory procedure, she thought to herself, “I can do this.”

Twelve years later, Dr Eunice Nduati has successfully competed for Wellcome Trust funding and has embarked on a study looking at the immunology of HIV infection.

Dr Nduati studied at Lavington Primary and Moi Girls', Nairobi before proceeding to Egerton University for a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and chemistry.

After her undergraduate training in 1998, she worked at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust laboratories for a while before joining Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for a masters degree in biochemistry.

Her research was on drug resistance to malaria.

“For my PhD, I diversified to other aspects of malaria disease,” said Dr Nduati.

She was among 16 candidates who survived the rigorous interview process for a PhD with the Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite (BIOMALPAR) International PhD programme, a European Molecular Biology Laboratory collaborative training programme.

Her training was partly in Britain and Kenya

Although it is known that children succumb to malaria over and over, developing immunity very slowly, it is not clear why this is the case.

Through experiments with mice and plenty of lab work using blood from children with malaria, Dr Nduati sought to find out why antibody-producing cells did not function optimally in the presence of a malaria infection.

“Although I enjoyed being abroad during a large part of the PhD, I decided that if I was going to continue with research, it would be back at home,” Dr Nduati said. Since returning home, she shifted her focus to HIV.

Her new project started in June 2011 and looks at paediatric HIV.

“I am still looking at the cells that produce antibodies but this time in children who are infected with HIV or born of mothers with HIV even if they themselves are not infected,” Dr Nduati said.

The research will seek to understand how the function of antibody producing cells in these two groups of children is affected and how they respond to routine vaccinations and childhood infections.

She is hoping that the study will advise policymakers on whether it would be of more benefit to have a different vaccination schedule for HIV exposed and infected children, parallel to that of the non-exposed population.

What is her advice to young women who want to join science?

“Believe in yourself. Believe that you can get that funding that you have seen advertised somewhere. Go for it.”