Inside a rare lab that's blazing a bold trail as it hunts for new drugs

## Summary
Global Health Inside a rare lab that's blazing a bold trail as it hunts for new drugs March 22, 2026 9:25 AM ET Ari Daniel Kelly Chibale founded the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, a facility with everything needed to discover drugs for some of humanity's most intractable ailments. This search is what motivated Chibale to found the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he currently serves as director. Chibale founded the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre in 2010. "It doesn't matter who you are and where you are," he says. "If you create something that is valuable, people will come." Focusing on molecules Part of Chibale's laboratory fills a good portion of the seventh floor of the chemistry building at the University of Cape Town. Originally from Kenya, scientist Mathew Njoroge says that the Centre "gives us all a lot of optimism about what the future of drug discovery in Africa might look like." Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption toggle caption Tommy Trenchard for NPR Njoroge's job is to help calculate the appropriate dose of a drug to give to a patient by determining how it's absorbed by the body, processed or metabolized, and excreted.

## Article Content
Global Health
Inside a rare lab that's blazing a bold trail as it hunts for new drugs
March 22, 2026
9:25 AM ET
Ari Daniel
Kelly Chibale founded the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, a facility with everything needed to discover drugs for some of humanity's most intractable ailments.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Kelly Chibale
says that the hunt for new drugs is kind of like a fairy-tale quest. And it takes a lot of time and patience. "It doesn't mean that there aren't surprises or miracles," he says. "They do happen, but you have to kiss many frogs before you meet the prince."
The "prince" might just be a new medicine to treat malaria or tuberculosis.
This search is what motivated Chibale to found the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he currently serves as director.
The discovery of new medicines often takes place in North America, Europe and Asia. So that's where the agenda tends to be set for which diseases to treat and who benefits. But Chibale says H3D is a rare facility in Africa with everything needed to discover drugs for some of humanity's most intractable ailments.
For the 61-year-old Zambian, it's a natural outgrowth of his love of chemistry. When he was a student and started visualizing molecules and puzzling through how to transform one into another, he knew that he had found his cerebral soulmate.
Chibale grabs a chemistry book off the shelf in his office and riffles through a parade of molecules — each one like an old friend.
"Calicheamicin, zaragozic acid, taxol, brevetoxin B even — all of them are here!," he exclaims.
"It's a science, but it's also an art. And that's what really fascinates me about organic chemistry, and I fell in love. When you fall in love, you can't explain," he says with a laugh.
That love affair is what led Chibale to found his center so he and his team can go, in his words, drug hunting. "When you go hunting, you are hungry," he says.
And he's confident that this unrelenting hunt and hunger will pay off before long.
A return to Africa
Chibale moved to the U.K. and U.S. for graduate school and to work as a researcher. That's when he was struck by the connection between organic chemistry and the making of complex pharmaceuticals.
"What is a drug? It's a molecule. And a molecule has a chemical structure," he says. With effort, such a structure might just be built in the lab.
"So when you see these Mount Everest of molecules that have been made, it's incredible," says Chibale. "I mean, these things are just beautiful. There's no ugliness in molecules."
During the time that he was abroad, he also witnessed up close the powerful pipeline of drug discovery that exists in the wealthier countries of the Global North. He says, "I saw the pharmaceutical industry employing thousands and thousands of scientists working in research and development" — and tackling the health challenges relevant to those populations.
Kelly Chibale has long been drawn to organic chemistry. "I fell in love," he says with a laugh. "When you fall in love, you can't explain."
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Chibale knew that this wasn't the case in Africa, a continent that struggles with its own afflictions, alongside limited funding, infrastructure and technical know-how.
As Chibale was wrapping up a stint in California, he considered jobs at Western pharmaceutical companies. Then he chanced upon a faculty positionat the University of Cape Town, and something stirred inside him.
"I just felt this calling," he remembers. "It wasn't from my head, it was from my spirit. I felt it. To come and inspire and show that it's possible to do world-class research out of Africa."
One of his mentors in the U.S. was stunned that he was even considering it. Chibale recalls him saying, "'Africa? You wanna go back to Africa?' He meant well, he was looking out for me."
Chibale came for an interview. "I didn't take long to accept the position," he says. "I knew this is where I needed to be.
That was 1996. Chibale founded the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre in 2010.
"It doesn't matter who you are and where you are," he says. "If you create something that is valuable, people will come."
Focusing on molecules
Part of Chibale's laboratory fills a good portion of the seventh floor of the chemistry building at the University of Cape Town. He walks past fume hoods, flasks, numerous bottles of reagents, and all manner of machines that he and his team are using in their pursuit of new medicines to combat malaria, tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance. "These diseases are very prevalent on my continent," he says.
The H3D Centre is filled with fume hoods, flasks, bottles of reagents, and all manner of machines that are used to find new medicines to combat malaria, tuberculosis and antimicrobial

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Chibale founded the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre in 2010. "It doesn't matter who you are and where you are," he says. "If you create something that is valuable, people will come." Focusing on molecules Part of Chibale's laboratory fills a good portion of the seventh floor of the chemistry building at the University of Cape Town.
- Then his team tweaks the most promising molecules to see if they can make them even more potent until they have an ace in the hand.
- This was the approach that, a little more than a decade ago, surfaced a promising new kind of malaria drug that entered clinical trials first in South Africa and then in Ethiopia. "It was the first time that an Africa-led international effort took a project from the lab and discovered a drug that entered human clinical trials — for any disease," Chibale says.
- When he reflects on the H3D Centre in Cape Town, he's excited to see it playing on the same stage as other academic and pharmaceutical institutions in the Global North. "It must be the leading center in the world for comprehensive drug discovery and development for diseases of the developing world," he says. "It's extraordinary.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- And it takes a lot of time and patience. "It doesn't mean that there aren't surprises or miracles," he says. "They do happen, but you have to kiss many frogs before you meet the prince." The "prince" might just be a new medicine to treat malaria or tuberculosis.
- When he was a student and started visualizing molecules and puzzling through how to transform one into another, he knew that he had found his cerebral soulmate.
- And he's confident that this unrelenting hunt and hunger will pay off before long.
- With effort, such a structure might just be built in the lab. "So when you see these Mount Everest of molecules that have been made, it's incredible," says Chibale. "I mean, these things are just beautiful.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers chibale, africa, drug topics. Notable strengths include discussion of chibale. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 2019.