Biography
Dr Nkya has a background in Microbiology and Chemistry (BSc) and Molecular Biology (MSc). As part of her MSc training she conducted research in malaria focusing on molecular resistant markers of drug resistance in P. falciparum and held an internship Kemri Wellcome Trust, Kilifi, Mombasa, Kenya. Since joining MUHAS as a research scientist she has participated in a number of SCD projects and since 2009 has led the genetic research of SCD. The primary focus of her PhD was the genetic determinants of fetal haemoglobin, as part of this she established a genetic database of more than 1700 individuals with SCD with well described SCD phenotypes and undertook the first Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) analysis of an African population in collaboration with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. She held a Commonwealth Split-Site Fellowship spending one year of her PhD at the Molecular Hematology Department of King’s College London, UK. Siana was involved in establishing a newborn screening programme for SCD as the laboratory manager. Siana is a lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) and a honorary lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). She is a Fogarty Global Health Fellow (2016/2017) and was sponsored by NIH to conduct a follow up study on genetics of fetal haemoglobin in individuals with SCD. Siana is also an African Academy of Science affiliate(2018-2022) from Eastern Africa region.