Cybercafes, Transistor Radios, and Scientific Democracy Lead African Data Scientist to New Discoveries

Geoffrey Siwo, the Center’s newest team member, spent most of his life in Kenya, where the majority of his family still lives.

Siwo’s research interests include computational biology, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology—topics that began to fascinate him as a child. “Growing up, we made most of our toys ourselves. As a result, I became curious about how things work, especially electronics like sonar, radio, television, and eventually computers,” Siwo remembers. “I knew a lot about transistors and computer logic years before I actually learned how to use a computer.”

Siwo’s interest in biological science was sparked by a moment in primary school when the science teacher described cancer as an uncontrolled growth. “It surprised me that uncontrolled growth can kill. I thought the teacher had the definition wrong,” Siwo recalls. He went home and looked through the dictionary and some medical reference books his father had to learn more about cancer.

To really understand cancer, Siwo discovered, one has to appreciate a range of biological processes, from DNA to cell division and immunity.

For about a dollar an hour, Siwo taught himself how to access draft sequences of the human genome and thousands of HIV-1 sequences to test his hypothesis.

By his last year of high school, Siwo was so interested in human genetics that he sent a handwritten letter to Stanford University professor Patricia Jones, then the chair of Stanford’s biology department. A few months later, Jones’s answer came in the form of a parcel containing Molecular Biology of the Cell—a popular molecular biology book—and a note expressing her hope that Siwo might find answers there.

Jones’s response inspired Siwo. “I read the book like I was on a journey through biology, receiving great lessons in molecular biology, from RNA to cells and viruses,” Siwo says. Fourteen years later, on a visit to Stanford, he would meet Jones in person and have a chance to extend the conversation.

As an undergraduate at Kenya’s Egerton University, Siwo began to see the connections between computing and biology and how, together, those fields could answer important health questions. “I became interested in whether HIV-1, a retrovirus, could interact with the retrovirus-like material that occurs naturally throughout human cells. And I wondered if this could facilitate rapid evolution of drug resistant HIV,” Siwo says.

At the time, Siwo was interning with Dr. Jason Mwenda, who studies retrovirus-like sequences, at the Institute for Primate Research in Nairobi. “Dr. Mwenda found the question interesting but noted that we would need advanced labs and funding to pursue it,” Siwo says. Looking for alternative approaches, Siwo began to ask himself, “Can we test this hypothesis on a computer?”

"Abstracting biological problems into digital problems can revolutionize and democratize how and where discoveries are made."

Siwo did not own a computer, so he frequented cybercafes. For about a dollar an hour, he taught himself how to access draft sequences of the human genome and thousands of HIV-1 sequences to test his hypothesis. “Within a few months, I had some results,” Siwo says. In 2003, his work was accepted for a poster presentation at an American Society for Microbiology meeting in Chicago. Seeking sponsorship at the meeting, he emailed Anthony Fauci, whose NIH office supported Siwo’s attendance.

Siwo says he learned then that data science, biological knowledge, and thoughtful hypotheses can empower anyone in the world to explore areas of new knowledge in ways even top experts might not have imagined. “From that time, my research has been defined by this realization—that abstracting biological problems into digital problems can revolutionize and democratize how and where discoveries are made.”

Obstacles remain for many who want to pursue advanced research, including large differences in resources. Lack of access to computers with high processing speeds and memory—and connected to adequate internet bandwidth—limits the kinds of work researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can take on.

"No one understands African problems more than Africans themselves."

Africa, says Siwo, is also a place of tremendous possibility, much of which is already being realized and shared. “Africa has embraced many fast growing technologies—such as mobile phones—more quickly than the rest of the world. And during the pandemic, many African countries adapted robotics quickly and in novel ways.”

Sustainable solutions to health, agriculture, and energy challenges in Africa can be achieved only through the full involvement of the people of Africa, Siwo says. “No one understands African problems more than Africans themselves.” Siwo sees this as a strength of doing research in LMICs, with researchers embedded within the communities facing those challenges. “Research conducted by local scientists is more likely to engage directly with the people who might benefit from the research, so we have a better chance of building practical solutions.”

That said, Africa’s homegrown solutions are not only for Africa. “While entrepreneurs do well to start with providing local solutions, they can always scale up to help others, keeping in mind the world is their market,” Siwo observes. This ability to collaborate across academic fields and well beyond it to policy, business, and tech sectors is part of what attracted Siwo to global health work at Michigan. “Tachi Yamada has always been a source of inspiration to me. He maintained a commitment to developing unique gene therapies when few others considered them viable. His unique career trajectory—from academia to head of Global Health with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to head of R&D at large pharma companies—demonstrates his range and his willingness to take professional risks for the sake of others.”

Looking into the future, Siwo’s childhood passion for scientific discovery continues to motivate his academic and industry collaborations. “I am especially excited about the global rise of young data scientists and entrepreneurs across Africa, most of whom are self-taught and eager to take on the challenges facing their communities. They give me hope.”

—Josh Messner

Photo. Siwo appearing on the original TED platform (photo license CC BY-NC 3.0)