For a long time, I have been dreaming of doing research to improve the reproductive health of men. When Dr. Mark Wossidlo and I received an Africa-UniNet grant for a project, I became more confident as a researcher, more graduate students took interest in my Andrology in HIV research at the University of Lagos, and my team has grown stronger and larger. The workshop we had in September 2022 at the Medical University of Vienna, which was made possible by the Africa-UniNet project, has significantly built my research capacity and that of my colleagues. The partnership with Dr. Mark Wossidlo has given room for staff and student exchange programs, wherein some of my graduate students will be in the laboratory of Dr. Wossidlo to receive novel skillsets relevant to their thesis, while in October 2023, Drs Wossidlo, Julia Arand, and I, will be hosting a state-of-the-art workshop on “epigenetics” at the University of Lagos, courtesy Africa UniNet.
In addition to these, I have also gotten more collaborators nationally and internationally including Yale University, and the University of Pittsburgh, USA. More importantly, as an offshoot of our ongoing Africa-UniNet research, we came up with new questions that were begging for answers. So, with the help of Dr. Wossidlo, I applied for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship by the European Commission, and I am delighted that I also received this prestigious opportunity. This MSCA fellowship will allow me to conduct a 2-year research project in the Wossidlo laboratory. There I will be working with sperm cells, oocytes, and embryos to demystify the outstanding question of whether antiretroviral treatment of HIV causes an abnormal epigenome and the propagation of novel epimutations with potentially detrimental outcomes to offspring and future generations.
Thus, I have moved a lot closer to achieve my dream. My deep appreciation goes all out to Africa-UniNet for fostering research partnerships between Austria and Africa and making such dreams possible. You sowed a seed that is growing and bearing more fruits.
Dr. Edidiong Akang is a Senior Lecturer, at the Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. He obtained his Ph.D. in Anatomy in 2015 specializing in Reproductive biology. Between 2016-2018, Dr Akang worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Morphology and Andrology Group (MAG), led by Prof Azu of the Discipline of Clinical Anatomy, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In addition, for over a decade, he has worked as a scholar at different tertiary Institutions including Yale University, USA.
Dr Akang`s overarching research aim is to improve semen parameters of men with male infertility using in vitro and in vivo model systems. He currently focuses on understanding the mechanism by which HIV affects sperm parameters and the role of the antiretrovirals.
