Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership

Eric Magembe is the Global Molecular and Technical Research Lead with the USAID Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership (GBPP). He is based at the International Potato Center (CIP) based in Nairobi Kenya for over nine years now. He is using new breeding tools, mainly biotechnology, to develop potato varieties resistant or tolerant to diseases including late blight, bacterial wilt and PVY. The late bight resistant biotech potato is at an advanced stage and has been developed by genetic engineering broad-spectrum resistance genes from wild potato relatives into susceptible farmer-preferred varieties. Dr. Magembe believes that biotechnology presents exciting opportunities to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods for small-holder farmers.

Dr. Magembe has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Nairobi. He did his thesis research at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) where he developed molecular diagnostic tools for three important plant diseases in Africa. During his PhD studies he received a Borlaug LEAP fellowship which he conducted at Texas A&M University, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology. He has a Masters in Biochemistry from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelors in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Chemistry from Egerton University.