Dougbeh Chris Nyan is a

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

n medical doctor, a

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

research scientist, social activist and inventor. He specializes in

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable d ...

research.

Education

Nyan studied chemistry and zoology at the College of Science and Technology of the

University of Liberia The University of Liberia (UL or LU in older versions of abbreviation) is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the university opened in 1862 as Liberia Col ...

. He holds a degree in human-medicine (infectious diseases) from Humboldt-University Berlin,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. Nyan did his post-doctoral fellowship as a biomedical scientist at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U ...

(NIH), USA and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

, USA. Nyan is an activist for democracy and social justice. He was imprisoned by the Liberian military government of General

Samuel Doe Samuel Kanyon Doe (6 May 1951 – 9 September 1990) was a Liberian politician who served as the 21st president of Liberia from 1980 to 1990. Doe ruled Liberia as Chairman of the People's Redemption Council (PRC) from 1980 to 1984 and then as ...

and afterwards, in 1988, exiled. In 2014, Nyan was head of the Diaspora Liberian Emergency Response Task Force on the Ebola Crisis. The team of Liberian professionals and diaspora organizations was fighting the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and surrounding areas.

US Food and Drug Administration

Until 2014, Nyan was a scientist at the Laboratory of Emerging Pathogens of the Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In September 2014 Nyan gave a congressional testimony on the Ebola outbreak. After testifying before United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, his fellowship was terminated. In an interview Nyan mentioned he was never told what raised the FDA's disapproval. When the FDA removed his name from a scientific research paper and the development of a medical test he filed a

complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

against FDA. Congressman Lamar Smith, Chairman of the US Oversight Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, initiated an inquiry process. After two years, in October 2016, the FDA returned the patent documents to Nyan. Nyan invented a rapid diagnostic test that detects Ebola,

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

, Zika,

Plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vert ...

(Malaria),

Yellow Fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

virus,

Dengue Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...

virus,

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the '' Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. F ...

, C, and E, and West Nile virus. The test can detect three to seven infections simultaneously in 10 to 40 minutes.

Awards

* July 26, 2016, Nyan received the Humane Order of African Redemption from Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf * July 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa for Social Impact

Private life

Nyan has four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyen, Dougbeh Chris Living people Liberian infectious disease physicians University of Liberia alumni Year of birth missing (living people) National Institutes of Health people Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Pennsylvania people