Yvonne MBURU

Bio

Dr. Yvonne Mburu is an immunologist and the founder and CEO of Nexakili, a growing network of African and African-diaspora health professionals and scientists, whose mission is to connect African experts across the globe, circulate scientific knowledge, and accelerate the availability of innovative medicine in Africa.

Yvonne did her undergraduate studies in Biology and Chemistry at York University in Canada, followed by a doctorate in Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States. She then won a prestigious postdoctoral grant from the Cancer Research Institute to pursue research on the immunotherapy of cancer at the Marie Curie Institute in Paris, France.

On the heels of a promising career in cancer research, Yvonne’s dynamic personality nudged her away from the safe harbors of the research laboratory and into entrepreneurship. With Nexakili, her research interests now span health systems and health policy design, as well as cyber networks, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, with the overarching goal of mobilizing the human and intellectual capital of the African diaspora to catalyze breakthrough research on the African continent.

Yvonne is a Fellow of the Next Einstein Forum, a biennial recognition of Africa’s best young scientists and technologists. She has published numerous scientific articles, blogs and opinions contributing to shaping the health and science discourse on the continent. Since August 2017, she sits on French President Emmanuel Macron’s Presidential Council for Africa, a consultative body through which she advises him on issues concerning health, science and innovation in Africa.