Peggoty Mutai is doing a research on the worm that causes diarrhoea in children. This has landed her nomination for a prestigious award. KIUNDU WAWERU caught up with her

Peggoty Mutai spends most of her days with worms. Though small worms cause untold suffering to human beings especially poor children.

To eradicate the problem of worms, Peggoty says we need to understand them.

That explains why the young scientist has a special interest in the worm that causes diarrhoea, killing hundreds of children in Africa.

Thus for her PhD, split between the University of Nairobi and Cape Town, she chose the "research road less travelled."

Peggoty is confident that her research will contribute positively in the journey towards an effective drug.

She says worms are a common problem in Africa, Kenya being no exception.

"They are a bigger problems than most of us think as they affect the cognitive functions of children, the intellectual development, intestinal obstruction, anaemia and may lead to death", she explains.

Great advances

And the viability of the project has earned Peggoty a prestigious nomination.

She is one of the four African women who will travel to France on March 29 for the L’Oreal-Unesco Award ceremony. The awards has recognised 72 laureates, exceptional women who have made great advances in scientific research.

 The Unesco-L’Oreal Fellowship for Young Women in Life Sciences is a prestigious award with the aim of building scientific capacity in member states. As an L’Oreal fellow, Peggoty will be studying at the McGill University, Canada.

The scholar believes that the practicability of her work and the fact that it can be carried out in Kenya endeared her to the nominating judges comprising of distinguished scientists, some Nobel Laureates.

"It is about bringing a specific technique to Africa so that when it eventually yields a drug, it will be an African innovation," she says.

So what is her childhood background?

Growing up in the rush green of Kericho, Peggoty was naturally weaned into the world of research. "I always did research, though I did not know it was research," she says.

Peggoty started the PhD in July 2010. She collected a plant, used traditionally for the management of worms, with the aim of getting the active components of the plant. Her major challenge was getting the plant and components tested for activity against worms.

"I tried growing some worms in the lab, and they were just not multiplying as fast as I would have liked them to," she says.

To overcome the challenge, some scientists advised her to try harvest worm eggs in sheep. "That did not sound like an accessible test method that you can use frequently," she says.

While still struggling to find a test method, she left for the University of Cape Town, where she eventually got the right formula.

Peggoty says getting a drug could take three years, or perhaps 50 years. "It really depends on us getting a high quality compound. But I am optimistic that something good will come out of this," says the bubbly scientist.

She adds that research is teamwork, and putting a new drug in the market involves effort from researchers from different fields.

Scientists are known to be all work, with no light moments. But Peggy cracks a joke now and then. She says that much research goes on behind the scenes and many compounds researched on do not end up as drugs, a process her supervisor refers to as "kissing many frogs before meeting the prince".

"I hope my work will lead to solutions but should it be a frog, at least another researcher will not have to kiss it again in search of the prince," she says jokingly.

Peggoty is excited about winning the award, though she knows it is also a challenge.

Big challenge

"It definitely is a good forum for me to pursue my dreams as it will give me an opportunity to meet great people in science, people who have impacted the world.  Challenging because ‘to him who much is given much is expected’. L’Oreal has confidence in my work, that it is worth their investment and that is a big challenge to me that I should not disappoint them," she says.

Peggoty is an old girl of Alliance Girls’ High School. She studied Pharmacy at the University of Nairobi and a Masters in Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Analysis). For her Masters degree, she was in a "very big’ class consisting of two people — my academic twin Dennis and I!"

The last born in a family of four children, Peggoty has come along way since those days she used to play in the tea bushes and in the forests. She says this may have influenced her interest in nature and medicinal plants.

And when research gets too crazy for her, she makes a nostalgic journey to Kericho to unwind.

Peggoty thanks God for her supportive husband, major Raymond Kemei. He understands her hectic work and Peggy says he has also become a scientist for spending time with her at the UoN Labs.

 Her likes? Discovering new things, and spending time with optimistic, open-minded people.

 "I dislike people who do not care about the common good. It really annoys me to see someone throwing litter from their car on the highway yet their compounds are well manicured and not littered," she says.

Peggoty takes walks, jogs or swims to unwind. Other times she takes long drives alongside her hubby, Ray. She also reads non-scientific stuff, besides listening to music.