WASHINGTON, DC January 18, 2023 – Africa’s globally acclaimed biomedical scientist and inventor, Dr. Dougbeh Christopher Nyan, M.D. of Liberia, has cautioned the “Liberian population and key opinion leaders not to politicize the health of former Vice President Jospeh Nyumah Boakai and to stop interfering with Hon. Boakai’s political future and legacy.”

“Only Hon. Boakai with advice from his attending physicians can together make informed health-related decisions regarding his [Boakai’s] political and daily activities,” Dr. Nyan, the German-trained medical doctor emphasized in a recent interview.

Dr. Nyan further said that, “VP Boakai has a unique and distinguished public service legacy that must be recognized, hailed, and promoted, instead of people making unprofessional statements that tend to undermine the honorable man.”

In the last several days, the local media in Liberia has been flooded with mixed statements about former Vice President Joseph Boakai’s health when he checked in at a local hospital at ELWA in the suburb of Monrovia.

Dr. Nyan added that, “in our growing democracy, nobody has the right to unduly pressure another to exit the political stage.”

Amidst these concerns, several opinion polls still put Boakai as the leading opposition presidential contender in the coming 2023 general elections due to be held on October 10^th this year in Liberia. He was vice president for 12 years in the previous government.

The scientist, who is also a political activist for good governance, further encouraged Liberians at home and in the diaspora to “pray for the health of its leaders and for a broad united opposition camp to mobilize voters as the country prepares for elections in October this year.”

Dr. Nyan, further said that, “the country [Liberia] is dying in the hands of the Weah government and needs to be resuscitated by a combination of visionary and truly patriotic national leaders with integrity and impeccable public service credentials.”

He is the internationally acclaimed scientist who invented the rapid multiplex test for infectious diseases, now called the NYAN TEST which detects and simultaneously identifies 3 to 7 infections within an hour using just one test. He has been granted three US Patent for his technology and won several awards.

Last year from August to December, Dr. Nyan spent time in Liberia and Ghana, where he performed five months of unpaid-volunteer services in teaching and lecturing at various medical and academic institutions of learning. His academic and public health service has been described by the people as patriotic and giving back to the country. Dr. Nyan has been performing such national service yearly since 2005 when he taught medical microbiology at the A.M. Dogliotti School of Medicine of the University of Liberia.

WASHINGTON, D. C. – The Patent and Trademark Office of the United States Government has granted Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan a third patent for his invention of the real-time multiplex rapid diagnostic test for infectious diseases. Dr. Nyan is one of the world’s brightest scientists from Liberia, a historic country founded in Africa by ex-slaves from the Americas.

United States Patent No. 11473155B2 was issued to Dr. Nyan recently for another important component his scientific invention entitled, “Methods for Real-time Multiplex Isothermal Detection and Identification of Bacterial, Viral, and Protozoan Nucleic Acids.” This selection which was filed on August 24, 2019 underwent about 2 years of thorough review by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Dr. Nyan’s invention is truly novel and groundbreaking. It embodies state-of-the-art methods and procedures that detects and simultaneous identifies multiple microbial infections in real-time in less than an hour using one test — referred to as the NYAN-TEST. The test targets such pathogens as Ebola, COVID-19, Malaria, Dengue, HIV, Hepatitis viruses, West Nile, Lassa, Marburg, Typhoid and many more.

This is a milestone development that adds another exploratory avenue for Shufflex Biomed, a start-up company founded by Dr. Nyan and headed by him as Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. His scientific works have been published in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature, the International Journal of Infectious Disease, Clinical Infectious Diseases and Neuropeptides, and archived at the National Library of Medicine at the NIH.

The prominent African biomedical scientist, Dr. Nyan who is from Liberia, was issued his first patent on September 11, 2018 by US Patent and Trademark Office. His second patent was then granted to him on April 19, 2022.

Dr. Nyan is a National Institute of Health-trained biomedical scientist in infectious disease research. He earned his medical degree from the famous Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Medical Faculty of the Humboldt-University of Berlin in Germany.

The globally acclaimed scientist, Dougbeh Chris Nyan, was once a political prisoner who was forced into exile by the Liberian military junta of General Samuel Doe for advocating democracy and social justice in the 80’s.

He has received numerous awards including the “Humane Order of African Redemption” and the “Lifetime Achievement Award in Science Research and Medicine” in 2016; the “2017 African Innovation Award Special Prize for Social Impact,” and the “2021 Manevia Leadership African Award in Public Healthcare Innovation.” Later this year Dr. Nyan was awarded the “2022 Emma Shannon Walser Medal for Rule of Law, Good Governance and Patriotism,” and the 2022 Alpha Phi Alpha Awards of Honors for Science Research and Public Health Advocacy.”

In an effort of giving back to society, for about five months since August 2022, Dr. Nyan has taught and lecture at various medical and academic institutions as an unpaid-volunteer visiting professor in Liberia including the Monrovia College, Harbel College, AME University, United Methodist University, and the Harbel Firestone Duside Hospital, among others. In Ghana, he presented at the Noguchi Memorial Medical Research Institute of the University of Ghana – Legon.

Dr. Nyan is currently training about 30 students on the Nyan Scholarship Program (NSP) in medicine, nursing, midwifery, and public health in Liberia. Twelve of these students are scheduled to graduate at the end of the coming academic year.

Former Liberian leaders, Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf have individually praised infectious disease scientist and inventor, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan for his representation of Liberia and Africa in global science and medicine.

The leaders also congratulated the medical scientist on being granted his second patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his invention of the rapid multiplex diagnostic test for infectious diseases, now named the NYAN-TEST.

Contributed by Fatoumata Njei

This comes as Dr. Nyan, over the weekend, presented an autographed souvenir copy of his 2^nd US Patent to former Vice President Boakai during breakfast at his [Boakai’s] home in Paynesville, Monrovia on Friday.

On Sunday during a prayer service at the First United Methodist Church in Monrovia, the renowned scientist also presented same to former President Sirleaf, followed by a Sunday-lunch at Madame Sirleaf’s residence.

Presenting the patent-plaques, Dr. Nyan gratefully acknowledged the encouragement and moral support he [Nyan] received from both President Sirleaf and VP Boakai over the years since he served as July 26^th Independence Day National Orator in 2016.

“Thank you very much for your support and encouragement of my work and the patriotic challenge you posed which helped pushed me to these achievements; I say this, because we need to always say the good things that people do for us,” said Dr. Nyan.

In 2017, Dr. Nyan was among 3 winners of the prestigious African Innovation Award out of over 2000 competitors from all over Africa. This was Liberia’s first and only time being represented.

Considered Africa’s “Nobel Prize” for scientific innovations, the African Innovation Award was sponsored and organized by the African Innovation Foundation.

Both Boakai and Johnson-Sirleaf applauded the scientist for his accomplishments that have placed Liberia and Africa on the global map of science and technology. Both elders described Dr. Nyan as a Liberian patriot, and a pride to the nation and Africa.  

Dr. Nyan’s invention is a rapid multiplex diagnostic test for detecting multiple infectious diseases within 10 to 40 minutes using one test. The test can detect HIV, COVID-19, Hepatitis viruses, Ebola, Malaria and other infections.

He was instrumental in the fight against the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the COVID-19 fight in the US, Liberia, and several African countries.

The two US Patents awarded to Dr. Nyan grant the world acclaimed African scientist the sole legal, intellectual property, and commercial rights.

Dr. Nyan is currently in Liberia on an unpaid voluntary academic and professional semester-long teaching mission at his Alma mater, the Monrovia College where he teaches biology, and at various universities in Monrovia, Harbel, and Gompa Cities, where he lectures public health microbiology, public health biology and infectious diseases.

On Wednesday (5^th October 2022 at 2:00 pm GMT), Dr. Nyan, a volunteer visiting professor at the African Methodist Episcopal University, will serve a guest lecturer in the first science symposium organized by the College of Science and Allied Health.

ACCRA, Ghana – A prominent infectious diseases expert, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, M.D., has urged national governments to provide needed support to African biomedical scientists and biomedical engineers as they work hard to provide solutions for the continent’s medical and public health problems. He said, we as Africans will have to provide the solutions to our own problems.

Speaking at the Noguchi Medical Research Institute of the University of Ghana in Legon, Dr. Nyan’s lecture focused on the, “Challenges and Prospects in Public Health Response to Outbreaks in (West) Africa – The Case of Ebola, COVID-19, and Monkeypox.” The lecture presented a synopsis of the genetics of the three viruses as well as their mode of transmission and the pathogenesis (that is, how the viruses cause their respective diseases in humans).

The Noguchi Medical Research Institute is one of Ghana’s renowned biomedical research institutes located at the University of Ghana in Legon. The institute has been playing a major role in Ghana’s fight against COVID-19 Pandemic.

Dr. Nyan said that, “For the past century, Africa has seen a lot of infectious diseases, both emerging and re-emerging diseases like lassa, typhoid, yellow fever, malaria, the diarrheal disease and many others that have placed a disproportionate health burden on the continent.” 

The award-winning medical scientist further outlined that Africa’s weak and fragile health systems, lack of infrastructures, limited number of trained professionals, misallocation of financial resources, and weakness at implementing national health policies are some underlying factors that have contributed to the problems with Africa’s preparedness to respond to outbreaks over the years.

He, however, applauded efforts of the African continent in its successful fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, praised Ghana’s success in arresting the recent Marburgvirus outbreak and that of Nigeria’s public health response to the 2014 Ebola virus transmission into its borders, thus prevented its spread in that populous country.

Policies must be design through which governments will strongly support research and development, and support faculty researchers and student innovation projects that will promote Africa’s advancement in science, medicine and technology, Dr. Nyan, the NIH-trained scientist pointed out. He added that students must be allowed to bring out their “crazy ideas” and should not be shot down since that “crazy idea” could be a potential breakthrough invention.

On intellectual property, Dr. Nyan, an inventor and patents holder, emphasized that, “we [Africans] must protect our ideas” and publish our works so that we are not denied, but receive our due credits.  

He urged African governments to support biomedical start-up companies for manufacturing and marketing of Made-in-Africa biomedical products such as testing kits and not depending on the western countries.

The Liberian medical scientist, Dr. Nyan, is the world acclaimed inventor of the US patented rapid multiplex real-time isothermal test for infectious diseases (The NYAN-TEST) which simultaneously detects and identifies up to 7 infections in one hour using one test. This includes Coronaviruses, HIV/AIDS, malaria, Ebola and many more. Dr. Nyan has received two US patents for his inventions.

He testified before the US Congress in September 2014 on the Ebola outbreak and is the winner of the 2017 African Innovation Award Special Prize for Social Impact for his invention. During the current COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Nyan, has provided services in diagnostics, awareness on prevention, and promoted mass vaccination in the US and Africa.

Contributed to by: Jana-Astrid Schäfer and Fatoumata Njei

WASHINGTON, DC – At an event held in College Park, Maryland over the weekend at the University of Maryland, infectious disease scientist and social activist, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, was awarded the first ever Manevia Leadership African Award in Public Healthcare Innovation for 2021 (MALA 2021).

Dr. Nyan has made numerous contributions to Africa and the world through his work in medicine science, public health, technology in diagnostics within the context of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3) for health and well-being – advocating for Africa to produce her own testing kits and vaccines for coronavirus and other diseases instead of depending on donations.

“We are pleased to recognize the many impactful contributions you [Dr. Nyan] have made in saving lives during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, your fight against the present global COVID-19 Pandemic, and also in fighting for social justice,” Sam Wantoe, the award presenter added.

The Manevia African Leadership Award was established in line with United Nations principles to recognized and celebrate African innovators who are working tirelessly in their fields to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus transforming society for national and continental growth and development.

In fighting the present pandemic, Dr. Nyan has conducted numerous COVID-19 vaccination awareness in Liberia and other African countries including pandemic response activities in diagnostics, public awareness, and vaccination along with other colleagues in the US and Africa through the Diaspora COVID-19 Focus Group and the Maryland Medical Responds Corps.

Several others including innovators from Sierra Leone, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria also received awards.

Nigerian activist, Omotunla Faawumi, who fights against human trafficking in Africa, took home Emerging Female Leadership Award for her fight for human rights, while Dr. Dubem Gbujie an environmental activist from Nigeria won the award for Innovation in Climate Change.

Tete Ruth Farkollie, a young activist and innovative Liberian entrepreneur received an award for promoting African-style interior decoration and promoting SDGs to ensure quality and equal opportunities for education for all, gender equality, peace and justice.

Child Rights advocates, economic freedom fighters and community leaders including Satta Sirleaf, Darlington Collins, Musa Willie, Joe Wilson, among others took home awards for their work in community organizations, good governance, and rights advocacy.

In his acceptance remark, Dr. Nyan, the NIH-trained infectious diseases scientist emphasized that “my time will continue to be devoted to providing the best of services in medicine, science and technology to the African continent and the world,” adding that, “science, medicine and technology should be used to move Africa on the path of progress.”   

Dr. Nyan, who is also a social activist, commented that, “I have dedicated myself to the advocacy for youth, women’s causes, environmental causes and advocacy for science medicine and innovation; I appreciate this award and identify with all of you young activists for your dedication and courage in your advocacy for positive change and transformation in our societies.”

In advocating for democracy and good governance in Africa, Dr. Nyan stressed the “need to bridge the generational gap as we engage the politics of our respective African countries and continent so as to move the continent on the path of progress.”

The Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of Shufflex Biomed, Dr. Nyan, is the inventor of the rapid multiplex diagnostic test for infectious diseases (the Nyan-Test). The Nyan-Test can detect about 3-7 infections and simultaneously identify them in less than an hour. He was awarded a US patent for his invention and recognized last year by the 2020 German-Berlin Science Week.  

Dr. Nyan has received other awards and recognitions including the 2017 African Innovation Award Special Prize for Social Impact and the Humane Order for African Redemption in 2016 when he served as National Orator of the Liberia’s 169 Independence Commemoration.