Elijah Miinda Ateka (born 20 August 1972) is a Professor of Plant Virology at the

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is a public university that is situated in Juja, 36 kilometres northeast of Nairobi, along the Nairobi-Thika SuperHighway, off Exit 15. It offers courses in Technology, Engineering, ...

. He is involved with the diagnosis and characterisation of the sweet potato virus and the cassava virus, and is part of the Cassava Virus Action Project (CVAP).

Early life and education

Ateka attended Menyenya High School in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. Ateka studied

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

at the

University of Nairobi The University of Nairobi (uonbi or UoN; ) is a college, collegiate research university based in Nairobi and is the largest List of universities and colleges in Kenya, university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dat ...

and graduated in 1995. He remained there for his graduate studies, earning a Master's degree in

plant pathology Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...

in 1999 and a PhD in

molecular virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

in 2005. He worked under the supervision of Rose W. Njeru. During his PhD Ateka worked at the Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft. He has worked as a Visiting Researcher at

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was established in 1939 as the last of the nine Imperial Universities in the then Empire of Japan, and is now a Designated National Universit ...

, as well as in the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture. Ateka joined the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organisation, where he studied

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

viruses including feathery mottle,

leaf curl Peach leaf curl is a plant disease characterized by distortion and coloration of leaves and is caused by the fungus '' Taphrina deformans'', which infects peach, nectarine, and almond trees. ''T. deformans'' is found in the United States, Europe ...

and mild mottle virus. :De:Biologische Bundesanstalt fur Land- und Forstwirtschaft :De:Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft

Research and career

Ateka joined the

in 2006. He is involved with the monitoring of crops in east Africa, including

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

and

Cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

is a plant with a tuberous root that it extensively cultivated in Africa. It is a staple food of the developing world and the third largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics. Unfortunately,

plants are susceptible to circular single-stranded DNA viruses transmitted by

whitefly Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described. Description and taxonomy The A ...

. Ateka has been involved with

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

and

thermotherapy Heat therapy, also called thermotherapy, is the use of heat in therapy, such as for pain relief and health. It can take the form of a hot cloth, hot water bottle, ultrasound, heating pad, hydrocollator packs, whirlpool baths, cordless Far infra ...

trials to eliminate the Cassava mosaic virus. He opened a new diagnostic facility and greenhouse in 2017. Ateka was the Country Team Leader for the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

grant ''Cassava Disease Diagnostics''; one of the first programs run by and for people in

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

. Ateka works with Boykin at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

on the characterisation and diagnosis of viruses that impact the

plant. He has been involved with training programmes for African farmers and researchers, leading collaborative courses with

and

University of Eldoret University of Eldoret is one of the 22 public universities in Kenya and situated approximately 9 km along the Eldoret-Ziwa road in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County. It was founded in 1946 by the white settlers as a Large Scale Farmers Tra ...

. The programmes were supported by the

Crawford Fund The Crawford Fund, established as an initiative of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) in 1987, is a national support organisation for international agricultural research. History According to a paper prepared b ...

, and included the development of portable DNA sequencers (

nanopore A nanopore is a pore of nanometer size. It may, for example, be created by a pore-forming protein or as a hole in synthetic materials such as silicon or graphene. When a nanopore is present in an electrically insulating artificial membrane, membra ...

) to help farmers diagnose their crops early. During the project, the researchers identify the

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

of the

, a process which can generate up to 5 Gb of data. In 2019 Ateka and Boykin launched the KENET’s Virtual Lab, a high-speed data transfer platform to share information between Kenya and Australia. The collaboration has saved the researchers having to travel long distances to exchange data. He is developing a new breed of

that is more resilient to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

; including drought, heat and cold. Ateka has worked as an advisor for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Personal life

Ateka is married to Azenath N. Ateka, with whom he has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ateka, Elijah Ghanaian botanists Plant physiologists University of Nairobi alumni 1972 births Living people