London: With over 1,400 laboratories across its campuses, Imperial College London is shaping solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. These solutions cover disease control, food security, environmental sustainability, engineering, and more.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, during a guided tour as part of a learning visit to London, Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists explored the cutting-edge laboratories where science, technology, and collaboration are being harnessed to make global impacts. One of such laboratories is the Digital Diagnostics for Africa Laboratory, where solutions are being developed to address one of the health sector’s biggest gaps: diagnostic tests. Prof. Aubrey Cunnington, Head of Section and Professor in Paediatric Infectious Disease at Imperial College London, noted that diagnostic tests underpin the delivery of a lot of healthcare.
He explained that access to diagnostic testing remains a major challenge worldwide, particularly in underserved regions. “Diagnostic tests are really important for healthcare, but a lot of people in the world don’t have adequate access. It is like wearing a blindfold when you are trying to provide medical care, because you don’t know what you are dealing with. You don’t know the right treatment or how diseases are spreading,” the professor said. To address this, the lab is developing portable, technology-driven solutions that bring diagnostics directly to patients, outside traditional laboratory settings, according to Cunnington.
He further elaborated that two key technologies are central to this effort: Dragonfly and Lacewing. Dragonfly is a simple, portable lab-in-a-bag technology that gives results as a color change in a little tube. “Lacewing is a sample-to-result system. The idea is that your sample goes into a cartridge, then into a small handheld machine, and after 20 minutes, you get the diagnosis.” Such tools, he said, could transform healthcare delivery by enabling faster diagnosis, improving treatment decisions, and strengthening disease surveillance across Africa.
Beyond diagnostics in healthcare, another facility, Target Malaria Lab, showcased how innovation is being applied to tackle malaria, one of Africa’s most persistent public health challenges. Worldwide, there are over 3,570 species of mosquitoes, and 677 of those are in Africa. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2024, there were an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 malaria deaths in 80 countries, with Africa carrying a high share of the burden.
At the Target Malaria Lab, researchers are using advanced genetic approaches to reduce mosquito populations responsible for transmitting malaria. Dr. Federica Bernardini, a researcher at the lab, said that a natural genetic mechanism called Gene drive was being adapted to spread a genetic modification in malaria-causing mosquitoes. She explained that Gene drive enables specific traits to be passed on at higher rates than normal, allowing a modification introduced in a small number of mosquitoes to spread across an entire population. “If the modification affects the mosquito’s reproductive ability, the Gene drive reduces the mosquito population size over time.” Bernardini said that the technology held promise as a cost-effective and self-sustaining method for malaria control.
At the Translation and Innovation Hub of Imperial’s White City Campus, the Muju Earth Lab presented a stark reminder of the global food challenge. Founded by a Nigerian entrepreneur, Ifeoluwa Afolayan, the agritech startup is tackling soil degradation caused by intensive farming practices.