A Chemical Attraction

Prof Kelly Chibale talks about the bonds he has formed through his illustrious career which began in an impoverished Zambian township

- Sue Segar

I see MoleCules everywhere – In hair, in clothes, in everything. It fascinates me that you can look at a molecule’s chemical structure and modify the bonds and structures to modify the properties of molecules. Then those new structures can be used for something terrible, like bombs, or for something wonderful, like foods and medicines.”

Sitting in his office at UCT, Chemistry Professor Kelly Chibale, founder and director of Africa’s first integrated drug discovery centre, UCT’s Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D), spoke about his love for organic chemistry, which started during his childhood in Zambia.

“I simply fell in love with it. It was just like the way I fell in love with my wife Bertha. When you fall in love, you don’t plan!”

He related how, despite his background of extreme poverty in Zambia – and some serious setbacks in childhood – he was exposed to an excellent education system which made all the difference to his life.

“At high school we had an excellent chemistry teacher. The government of Kenneth Kaunda brought great teachers from countries like the UK and India, really educated people. They became role models.

“When I look back, I know I was born to be a chemist.”

Nearly ten years ago Prof Chibale founded UCT’s H3D, which hosts more than 60 people, including staff and post-doctoral scientists. It is effectively run like an innovative pharmaceutical company albeit within an academic environment. In 2017 it became the first African centre to lead an international team that discovered and put an antimalarial drug into Phase II human clinical trials. This drug is being watched closely globally as it has the potential to cure, block transmission and protect from malaria in a single dose.