Sheila Ommeh

About & Research Focus

Associate Professor Sheila Cecily Ommeh is a computational biologist, and biotechnology specialist with over three decades of research leadership spanning infectious disease dynamics, multi-omics, and translational biosecurity at the One Health interface. Her research program focuses on the rational design of next-generation biodetection platforms, point-of-care diagnostics, novel therapeutics, modern livestock vaccine platforms to safeguard animal production systems, biosecurity, and food security and exploring animal biodiversity for resillience.

Career Journey & Scientific Heritage

Born on the slopes of Mount Elgon—an extinct volcano straddling Kenya and Uganda—she grew up on the foothills with her grandmother, a smallholder farmer. Witnessing early on the devastating impacts of infectious diseases and climatic extremes on rural livestock and community livelihoods shaped her dedication to agricultural resilience and veterinary health. She was profoundly inspired and mentored by her late mother, an accomplished scientist and visionary leader who fostered her early career in STEM.

A seasoned research strategist, A/Prof Ommeh brings extensive experience establishing, funding, and directing large-scale, multidisciplinary initiatives across global academic consortia and international research networks. Her leadership unites computational biologists, field researchers, veterinary authorities, and cross-sectoral collaborator seamlessly aligning diverse teams to translate fundamental discovery science into robust research frameworks, policy-informing datasets, and durable institutional research capacity. Her scientific journey over the past 30 years encompasses a comprehensive One Health continuum across leading global research centres:

• Vector-Borne Human Pathogens: Commenced research at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) investigating Leishmania, subsequently advancing to human malaria molecular epidemiology with the KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Research Programme.

• Livestock Genomics & Biodiversity: Transitioned to agricultural biotechnology at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Seoul National University (Republic of Korea) and Paco Tecnologico Padano (Italy), focusing on avian genetics, viral disease resistance, and livestock adaptive resilience.

• Pathogen Surveillance & Wildlife Interfaces: At Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), she led the Animal Biotechnology Research Group at the Institute for Biotechnology Research (IBR). Her work spearheaded research on several indigenous poultry species and emerging livestock species. She also expanded into broad-scale pathogen surveillance, viral genomics, and biodiversity characterization across multi-species ecosystems; including domesticates, wildlife reservoirs, and vector populations with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), University of Hasselt (Belgium) and Pirbright institute (UK) among other international collaborations.

Postgraduate Supervision & Student Opportunities

A dedicated academic mentor and educator, A/Prof Ommeh has supervised over 20 Higher Degree by Research Scholars (HDRs) to successful completion.

She actively welcomes prospective PhD, MPhil, and Honours students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, with backgrounds or interests in:

• Computational Biology & Bioinformatics: Genomic pipelines, molecular phylodynamics, and pathogen evolution.

• Molecular Biosecurity & Next-Generation Diagnostics: Translation of molecular and deep-tech sensing platforms for rapid, remote field detection.

• Rational Vaccine & Therapeutic Design: Computational epitope mapping and modern platform engineering for high-impact veterinary diseases.

• One Health & Animal Biodiversity: Exploring adaptive traits, disease tolerance, and resilient emerging protein resources.

Students joining the research group gain hands-on expertise in interdisciplinary computational pipelines, multi-omics, advanced genomic sequencing, and translational animal health biosecurity, benefiting from strong international networks and industry-aligned research environments.