Francine Ntoumi, fighter for science in Africa

Professor Francine Ntoumi, here at the Unesco platform.

© FCRMBrazzaville

Text by: Agnès Rougier

4 min

Francine Ntoumi, molecular biologist by training, engaged from the start of her career in the fight against malaria, president of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research, fights daily in the field and internationally for the development of research health scientist in Congo-Brazzaville and on the African continent.

She is one of the guests of the RFI morning, this Monday, March 8, on the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, which honors women scientists.

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Due to a “

stammering 

”

school context 

in Brazzaville, Francine Ntoumi's parents encouraged her to come and study in France, where she found herself at the age of 15, far from her family, at the Lycée Marie Curie in Sceaux, near Paris. .

 After her doctorate, spent at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris in 1992, the biologist wonders: "

What is the disease that kills the most at the moment?

What can be useful in the Congo?

Malaria…

 ”.

For her post-doctorate, Francine Ntoumi then joined a team from the Institut Pasteur: “

… I fell in the bath of the passion of research for solutions! 

»She remembers.

In the 1980s, the birth of molecular epidemiology, and the researcher at the Institut Pasteur experimented with these new tools to study the DNA of malaria strains circulating in Senegal and better understand host-parasite interactions.

This commitment will lead her to be the first African responsible for the secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria from 2007 to 2010.

Financial autonomy, the driving force behind independence

For her first position, Francine Ntoumi worked from 1995 to 2000 at the International Center for Medical Research in Franceville, Gabon.

She then became aware of the weakness of research resources in the South: " 

To be able to do what you want in research and ask the questions you want to ask, you have to look for money, and there I have learned autonomy! 

".

Arriving 5 years later in post in her own country, the young researcher, enthusiastic, is not well received.

“

The

men weren't used to it, I think… 

” but she resists: “ 

I said, I'm a fighter, I think I can be a little bit useful at home, so I stay… and I am remained 

”.

Pursuing the idea of ​​developing scientific research in Congo-Brazzaville, in 2008 she created the

Congolese Foundation for Medical Research

, of which she is president.

Developing African research: a daily struggle

International recognition arrives when Francine Ntoumi published her first article in

Science

magazine

in 2011: “ 

The ant who learned to become an elephant 

”, on capacity building for health research in southern countries.

In 2012, the African Union's Kwamé Nkrumah Prize recognizes the continent's recognition of the scientist.

Then, distinctions and publications follow one another, but funding is scarce until 2016: Francine Ntoumi receives the Christophe Mérieux prize from the Institut de France, for her research on infectious diseases in Central Africa, which will allow the creation of the Center. of research on infectious diseases Christophe Mérieux, in Brazzaville.

Since the arrival of Covid, molecular biology having proved its usefulness in countering infectious diseases, the researcher has launched the creation of a transverse sequencing platform, for all pathogens (HIV, malaria, etc.).

Francine Ntoumi, professor at the universities of Tubingen in Germany and Marien-Gouabi in Brazzaville, involved in major public health networks in Africa and tireless fighter, concludes: “ 

If at the end of my career, scientific culture has developed, it will be won, my other fight is for the presence of women in science (…) yes, there is still a lot to do!

 ".

► Find out more

  • Scientific publications by Professor Francine Ntoumi

  • Malaria Resistance Network (WARN)

  • Institute of France 

  • Congo's Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation

  • University of Tübingen, Germany

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