Grace Nambatya Kyeyune

Grace Nambatya Kyeyune (née Grace Nambatya) (born April 1962), is a Ugandan medicinal chemist, researcher and academic, who serves as the Director of Research at the National Chemotherapeutic Research Institute (NCRI), based in Kampala.

Quotes

• My grandfather, like other Africans of his time, used traditional medicine to treat several ailments. As children, we would be given baths in an extract made from the leaves of the omwoloola tree (Entada abyssinica) to treat skin infections, among other conditions.
  • Use of traditional medicines among Africans

• Many of the traditional medicines are scientifically sound treatments. Even the large pharmaceutical companies are picking them from here to be developed into drugs, such as the Ugandan greenheart tree (Warbugia ugandensis), extracts of which have been used to treat coughs and malaria.
  • Running trials on traditional medicines

• What we are promoting is standardization; to develop the right dose and delivery method for safety and effectiveness. This will also support the development of our economy, because we would get World Health Organization certification for export.
  • Standardization and its importance

• ...my professional interest in traditional medicine was inspired by an eczema rash on my feet that left patches of black and white on my body when I was a university student.
  • How a failed eczema treatment triggered an interest in traditional medicine

• I feel great that I am in lead of a multi-skilled team of scientists: medical doctors, pharmacists, chemists, laboratory technologists, botanists, sociologists … as principal investigator into a natural formulation used by our communities for over 20 years against viral challenges.
  • Telling how she feels leading the clinical trial of a locally-developed drug to treat COVID-19