From Rwanda to US labs: How Nelson Ndahiro taught machines to make better medicine
At 29, Nelson Ndahiro lives in two worlds. In one, he is a Chief Technology Officer navigating the unforgiving terrain of American biotech venture capital. In the other, he serves as Rwanda's ambassador and a member of the Steering Committee for Synbio Africa, a pan-African network of more than 400 scientists.
When I first met Nelson Ndahiro in Kigali years ago, he was a little boy. At the time, it never occurred to me that he would grow into one of the most interesting young African scientists of his generation. Time, it turns out, had plans.
Ndahiro belongs to a generation that didn't just inherit a country; they inherited a grand political project. His father was a young doctor in the ranks of the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Army who fought to end the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a catastrophe that claimed at least one million lives. Growing up in the shadow of that struggle, the stakes of nation-building were never abstract; they were the air he breathed.
