Prof Faith Osier: The Kenyan scientist bringing vaccine manufacturing closer home
- Feb 13
- 1 min read
Friday, February 13, 2026
Health and Science Reporter
Nation Media Group
Prof Faith Osier, a Kenyan scientist based in the UK. She leads Chanjo Hub, which aims to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity across Africa and has an initial focus on Kenya.
What you need to know:
In Kenya, Prof Osier is currently piloting a new malaria vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
In Ghana, her team is using chicken and quail eggs to develop new life-saving vaccines.
Three years before the first-ever malaria vaccine was officially approved by the World Health Organization, Prof Faith Osier delivered an inspiring seven-minute TED talk about how close the world was to having one.
That video appears whenever you search her name online besides her designation as an immunologist, paediatrician, and educator.
She stood on the dimly lit stage with just her microphone, inspiring the world with a vision that was not yet realised, but she was hopeful it was near.
At the time, her team was working to understand the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum in order to develop a suitable vaccine candidate.
“We did this in Africa, and we are very proud of that,” she declared, as the audience cheered.
She was right. In 2021, the world got the first-ever malaria vaccine, which is given to children under the age of five, and Kenya was one of the first countries to roll it out.
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