When Collen Masimirembwa left Zimbabwe to study medical biochemistry and biophysics in Sweden, he hoped to learn what it would take for Africa to discover and develop its own drugs.

One doctorate degree and a decade-long career at AstraZeneca later, Collen concluded that first and foremost, Africa needed many more scientists. So, in 2002, he founded the African Institute for Biomedical Science and Technology (AiBST) to provide training on the intricacies of drug discovery and product development. In 2004, he opened a lab to give the students a place to apply their classroom learnings. Young people arrived in droves, eager to try all the things he and colleagues taught them.

"It was an ambitious idea," said Collen. "But as I did the work, I believed more strongly that we could succeed." In 2008, Collen returned to Zimbabwe to work at AiBST full-time and pursue his mission of making safe and effective drugs for the African population.

Over the course of his career, Collen has worked to understand the potential genetic factors embedded in the African population that need to be considered when a new medicine is being developed - and published over 130 papers on the topic along the way. Now he is "translating that knowledge into impact," he said.

His lab has come up with a unique genetic test that can predict a person's response to different medicines. It will be used by 6,000 patients across the continent, and the results will help scientists understand how to improve treatment outcomes for people of African ancestry.

More recently, his lab has started evaluating new chemical compounds to discover which ones have the potential to be used in new drugs. He is working to establish centers of excellence in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Nigeria to expand this work and build a thriving R&D ecosystem of African-led product development.