A passion for discovery can begin anywhere.
For Indiana University Professor of Medicine Tesfaye Mersha, PhD, it started in a small village in northern Ethiopia.
It's perhaps one of the last places in the world some people might expect a geneticist to have grown up, Mersha said. Most children in his village, he continued, dreamed of farming and raising large families. His path took a different direction.
Mersha began his research career seeking to understand the interactions between human biology and the environmental conditions that may contribute to disease. Over time, his studies took him to Germany and then the United States, and his interests grew to include genomics, genetic ancestry, personalized medicine and more.
His experiences studying and working in different parts of the world motivated him to find ways to invest and inspire researchers back home.
Along with a few other colleagues with African roots who are now working in the midwestern United States, Mersha founded the Alliance for Research, Innovation and Education for Africa, or the AfRIE project.
The organization’s goal is to create opportunities for collaboration, training and mentorship for African researchers by forging partnerships with institutions around the globe.
This, Mersha said, helps to ensure that scientific discoveries and educational opportunities flow in both directions.
“African researchers gain access to expertise and international networks, while researchers in the United States gain opportunities to study genetic diversity, infectious diseases and public health challenges that have global relevance,” Mersha said. “These partnerships strengthen science, education and healthcare for everyone involved and demonstrate that capacity building is most successful when it is built on mutual respect, shared learning and long-term collaboration.”
“AfRIE is deeply important to me because it aligns with my lifelong commitment to building genomics and research capacity in Africa,” Mersha said. “For genomics to reach its full potential, African researchers must be equipped to conduct studies, analyze data, publish discoveries and train future generations. AfRIE is not simply about transferring knowledge; it is about empowering African institutions to become leaders in research and innovation.”
Mersha joined the faculty at IU School of Medicine in 2025 and now serves as the director of the Precision Pulmonary Medicine Research Program and the James A. Caplin Professor of Pulmonary Research. He is eager to leverage IU’s strong history of global health research and international collaborations to further expand AfRIE's reach.
Here, Mersha expands on his research and the AfRIE program:
What first sparked your interest in the study of genetics? Why did you choose this area of medicine as your primary specialty?
As a child, I watched my sister struggle with severe allergies, especially during pollen season. Seeing her suffering made me curious about why people, even within the same family, can be so different in their health and responses to the environment. I often wondered what explained the variation I saw among my own relatives. That curiosity stayed with me as I grew older. I loved reading and was especially drawn to biology in school. Be it by design or mere serendipity, I have found myself in a position to research questions that first captured my imagination as a young boy watching my sister's struggle and wondering why we are all so different.
What conversations or questions led you and your colleagues to come together and form the Alliance for Research, Innovation and Education for Africa project? Why is this project important to you and to your work in genetics?
AfRIE emerged from conversations among friends who shared a common concern of growing up in Africa: Africa possesses immense scientific talent, but many universities and researchers face barriers related to training opportunities, mentorship, infrastructure, global networks and access to cutting-edge knowledge.
At the same time, we knew there were thousands of highly skilled African scientists and friends of Africa around the world who wanted to contribute but lacked an organized mechanism and networking to do so.
From those discussions emerged the concept of "Mobility of Minds," the idea that knowledge, mentorship and expertise can move across borders even when people do not. Rather than focusing on the physical movement of talent, we wanted to create pathways for the borderless exchange of ideas, training and collaboration using virtual platforms and collaborative networks.
This approach allows scientists around the world to contribute to African education, research, innovation and capacity building regardless of where they are physically located. In the past, we have all been contributing individually, but the impact was fragmented and little at the institutions or the community level. The discussion was how we can as a team capture the excess capacity individuals have. Bringing people together through networking, where each person contributes a few hours of their free time, makes a big difference.
Can you describe the work you did to launch the project?
Launching AfRIE required building trust, relationships and a shared vision among partners in Africa and around the world. We started with a pilot partnership with Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia and worked closely with university leadership, faculty and students to identify local priorities and areas where international expertise could have the greatest impact. We intentionally focused on listening first, understanding local needs and building equitable partnerships rather than imposing external solutions.
We then mobilized a network of volunteer scientists, educators, clinicians and industry experts from North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Through virtual platforms, we organized workshops, grant-writing programs, lectures and hands-on training sessions in genomics, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and team science and mentoring programs. We also established mentoring networks that connected trainees with experienced researchers around the world.
One of our most significant accomplishments was helping establish the Public Health Genomics graduate program at Bahir Dar University, the first program of its kind in Africa. Through this initiative, international experts deliver lectures, mentor students and support research projects remotely, while local faculty lead implementation on the ground. The work was largely volunteer-driven and motivated by a shared belief that investing in people and knowledge is one of the most sustainable ways to strengthen science and healthcare on the continent. The program demonstrates how virtual engagement and global collaboration can help build sustainable, African-led solutions to local and regional challenges. In a recent Nature Methods feature article entitled “They build science capacity in Africa for Africa,” we outlined the journey of establishing the MPH in Public Health Genomics program at Bahir Dar University starting from developing the curriculum through the university board approval process.
The mission of the project is to support African universities and further research within African countries.
Can you expand on what that looks like in day-to-day practice? How do you achieve the project's goals?
In practical terms, supporting African universities means investing in people and institutions. On any given day, sometimes in different time zones, this might involve mentoring graduate students, teaching online courses, helping faculty develop research proposals, reviewing manuscripts, facilitating collaborations or organizing training workshops.
These activities may appear small individually, but collectively they contribute to long-term institutional growth.
We focus on developing local expertise rather than simply transferring equipment or resources. Our goal is to empower African scientists to lead research projects, analyze genomic data, publish their findings and train future generations of researchers. The emphasis is always on partnership, local leadership and sustainability. We believe we can achieve the project goals.
