Sangha of Auspicious Companions

What’s Rare About This Lab That’s Searching for New Medicines

When Kelly Chibale left North America to take a job in Africa, a well-meaning mentor asked him if he was sure he’d want to leave the world-class facilities and research opportunities that he had access to in the western world. But Chibale felt what he calls a calling from his spirit — to prove that world-class drug discovery could happen on the continent that carries the heaviest burden of malaria and tuberculosis, yet loses its brightest minds to institutions in wealthier nations. Of his time studying and working in the UK and US, he points out, “I saw the pharmaceutical industry employing thousands and thousands of scientists working in research and development,” and they were tackling the health challenges relevant to those populations. The Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Center he founded in Cape Town now employs over 75 scientists hunting for medicines tailored to Africa’s genetically diverse populations. It is a rare facility where the people most affected by disease are leading the search for cures. “It’s not just going from the lab to the patient, but it’s also vice versa, from the patient back into the lab,” Chibale explains. He, who once lay in a Zambian hospital as a child with severe malaria, was saved by a drug someone else discovered, and he’s now devoted to becoming that someone for his neighbors.

Be The Change

Today, notice whose expertise you’ve dismissed because of preconceived notions of where it came from rather than what it offered. Whether it’s a colleague from an overlooked department, a solution from an unexpected region, or knowledge from outside traditional centers of authority, pause and ask yourself: What am I missing by assuming excellence only lives in specific places? Then actively seek out and genuinely engage with one perspective you’d normally look past.