PhD student supervised by Sii professor named University of Ghana valedictorian
Published: 11 August 2026
A researcher co-supervised by the School of Infection & Immunity’s Professor Harry De Koning has been recognised as the top graduating PhD student of his year at the University of Ghana.
A researcher co-supervised by the School of Infection & Immunity’s Professor Harry De Koning has been recognised as the top graduating PhD student of his year at the University of Ghana.
Worlanyo Tashie graduated from the Accra-based institution on Saturday, 25 July, where he was selected as Valedictorian and delivered an address at the graduation ceremony in the presence of the President of Ghana, John Mahama, and other dignitaries.
Worlanyo's PhD was jointly supervised by Professor De Koning and Professor Neils B. Quashie, a former University of Glasgow PhD student who graduated in 2008 and is now a senior academic at the University of Ghana.
As part of his research, Dr Tashie spent more than six months working in Professor De Koning's laboratory, where he cloned transporters from the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and expressed them in a specialist Leishmania mexicana cell line for characterisation. The collaboration also continued after his return to Ghana.
His PhD research investigated metabolic pathways in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum as potential targets for new drugs and has resulted in four first-author research papers.
Worlanyo is the second PhD student to be jointly supervised by professors De Koning and Quashie, continuing a research and training collaboration between colleagues at the universities of Glasgow and Ghana.
First published: 11 August 2026