From being the Department of Pharmacology’s first female lecturer to its first female head, Prof. (Mrs.) Cynthia Amaning Danquah has now become its first female professor of Pharmacology, marking a new chapter in the history of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi.

Prof. (Mrs.) Amaning Danquah is the Principal Investigator at the Centre for Anti-infective Drug Discovery (CADD) and Head of the Department of Pharmacology at KNUST’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences. Her promotion to professor cements a trailblazing journey that has redefined what is possible in the Department of Pharmacology.

A proud alumna of KNUST, Prof. Amaning Danquah earned her Bachelor of Pharmacy and MPhil in Pharmacology before pursuing a PhD in Natural Product Drug Discovery at University College London, specialising in antimicrobial resistance, a field that has become the focus of her research career.

She was appointed as the Department’s first female lecturer in 2009. After three years, she left to pursue her PhD studies abroad. In 2014, she rose to Senior Lecturer, became an Associate Professor in 2021, and has now reached the pinnacle as the department’s first female professor.

Her research centres on natural product pharmacology and toxicology, particularly the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in tuberculosis (TB). She leads the Anti-Infective Research Laboratory at KNUST, where her team explores plant-based compounds from Ghana’s biodiversity with potential to transform infectious disease treatment.

Her groundbreaking work has attracted major research grants, including the Africa Oxford Research Development Award (£50,000) to collaborate with the University of Oxford on drug discovery for TB. Overall, she has mobilised more than $230,000 in funding to drive research and build local capacity.

Prof. Amaning Danquah’s influence extends well beyond Ghana. She has served as a visiting scholar at Birkbeck, University of London; King’s College London; the University of Nottingham; and the University of Oxford. She also serves as an external examiner for international institutions, journal reviewer, and editorial board member for several journals.

She is the Country Ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology, an Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences, a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the British Pharmacological Society, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana.

As the first female head of the Department of Pharmacology, she has championed inclusive leadership, spearheaded the refurbishment of the Animal House Facility, and introduced new programmes currently in the pipeline.

In 2022, she received the Ghana Women Excellence Award for her contribution to tertiary education and scientific research. She was also the inaugural recipient of the KNUST Creativity and Innovation Award.