Biography
Dr Aimé Lumaka is Professor of Genetics at the University of Kinshasa (DR Congo).
Positions
- He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Human Genetics and Genomics at the KU Leuven (Belgium).
- Dr LUMAKA worked as Chief Medical Officer in Diploid, a genome analysis and Software development company in Belgium, before joining the University of Liège as Senior researcher and Senior clinician.
- Currently, Dr Lumaka focuses on the clinical and genomic characterization of rare diseases in African populations and the development of genomic medicine across the continent.
- He is the founder of the African Rare Diseases Initiative (ARDI) (https://ardi.africa), which has deployed a national network for rare and undiagnosed diseases in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- His ongoing commitments include (1) identifying genetic defects and morphological features of developmental disorders in African rare diseases patients, (2) a pilot implementation of genomic newborn screening, (3) the implementation of a national multiomics project in resource limited setting, and (4) building a genomic workforce in Africa.
- He has been designated Rare Diseases Champion by the UDNI.
Areas of special interest
- Clinical and Genomic Characterization of Rare Diseases
- Implementation of Advanced Genomic Medicine
- Infrastructure and Network Development for Healthcare
- Capacity Building and Workforce Education
Democratic Republic of the Congo