Mr. Ayodeji Emmanuel Ogunbayo is a Ph.D. NRF grant holder’s fellow at the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Unit and Division of Virology, University of the Free State (UFS), under the mentorship of Prof. Martin Nyaga. He holds BSc Degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology (University of South Africa (UNISA) and BMedSci and M.MedSci (UFS) degrees with specialization in Medical Microbiology and Virology. Previously, he worked on alternative methods for diagnosing Tuberculosis (TB) in children and deciphering mutations in different genes that confers resistance to different classes of antibiotics in TB patients.

Currently, his research focuses on deciphering the composition and diversity of respiratory virome in children, while simultaneously evaluating the utility and applicability of using metagenomics next generation sequencing technique for the diagnosis and characterization of severe acute respiratory infection in children in clinical settings. His research interests includes paediatric infectious diseases, TB diagnostics, epidemiological studies, viral metagenomics, and vaccine preventable diseases.