Novel Njweipi Chegou is an immunologist and a full professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. His academic journey began with training as a medical laboratory scientist in Cameroon, followed by postgraduate education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Dr Chegou leads the Tuberculosis Diagnostic Biomarker Research Group (ChegouLab) and currently serves as the Acting Head for the Division of Immunology. His primary research interest lies in the discovery of biomarkers for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and for monitoring how patients respond to tuberculosis treatment. He is particularly dedicated to developing simple, user-friendly diagnostic tests suitable for point-of-care application in resource-constrained settings, as would be common in many African and Asian countries.
Chegou’s work has so far resulted in 10 patent applications and 119 peer-reviewed publications. Beyond his research, he is deeply committed to mentoring younger researchers, having supervised 43 postgraduate students from various African nations. He is a South African NRF B-rated researcher and has received numerous accolades, including The UK’s Royal Society Africa Prize (2022), the NSTF-South32 TW Kambule Award, acknowledging his significant contributions to Science, Engineering, and Technology in South Africa (2023), a Silver Scientific Achievement Award from the South African Medical Research Council (2019), an ‘Emerging Research Talent’ Young Researcher Award, from the UNESCO-MERCK Africa Research Summit (2015) amongst others.
His research has directly led to the development of two prototype point-of-care tests for the rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis. A spin-out company is currently being established to commercialise these tests and other innovations from his laboratory, aiming to translate his scientific discoveries into practical health solutions.
South Africa