Research project: Assessment of animal and human health risk of a novel sandfly-borne virus and other co-circulating arboviruses in diverse ecologies in Kenya.

Dorcus is a DRIP PhD Scholar supervised by Prof. Rosemary Sang (icipe, KEMRI) and Prof. Marietjie Venter (University of Pretoria, South Africa). Her research interest is in virology, including viral pathogenesis, diagnosis, evolution, transmission dynamics and molecular virology.  She is currently investigating the degree and geographic extent of exposure to a novel sandfly-borne phlebovirus and other related and co-circulating arboviruses in human, livestock, and peri-domestic rodents in diverse ecologies in Kenya.

Dorcus holds BSc in Medical Microbiology and MSc in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. She is currently registered for a PhD at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and is supported by DFG funded project.