Medical Biochemistry Department
Introduction
Dr. Geoffrey K. K. Maiyoh, PhD (Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering),
JIAS 2018 writing fellow, Senior Lecturer and Head of Medical Biochemistry Department
The department of Medical Biochemistry at Moi University is housed in the School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences (CHS). At its inception, the aim of the department was to co-ordinate the teaching of basic principles of basic biochemistry, clinical biochemistry and molecular biology to medical students. The growth path of the CHS over the years has seen the birth of several schools namely Dentistry, Public Health and Nursing with each offering various graduate and undergraduate programs. Being a basic sciences department, we are tasked with the provision of teaching services to the various programs in the entire CHS. This includes teaching undergraduates in their early years to ensure they are well grounded in their knowledge of biochemistry which is crucial for success during their senior clinical years. We also teach Master of Medicine (MMED) students from various programs including Surgery, Orthopedics, Psychiatry, Reproductive Health and Child Health and Pediatrics alongside students from the Master of Science (MSc) programs in Immunology and also MSc in Pharmacology. In 2015 the Moi University senate approved the MSc program in Medical Biochemistry. This is the first program to be fully housed at our department. The philosophy of this rigorous 2-year program is to deepen knowledge and research skills and to disseminate new ideas in the field of Medical Biochemistry locally, nationally and internationally. The department admitted its first cohort of graduate students in September of 2016. In an effort to provide the best quality laboratory-based training as expected of all basic sciences, our department successfully applied for an equipment grant from Seeding Labs, Boston, USA and was selected as among the few state of the art equipment recipients whose role will be to setup a research laboratory for use by both graduate students and faculty. The equipment has since been received.
Our faculty is highly qualified and very dynamic in terms background training, research and teaching interests. Some of the key areas of research emphasis includes Non-communicable diseases (Diabetes, Obesity, Cardiovascular disease and Cancer), Parasite biochemistry and Toxicology.
