Fellows
Wonderful Choga
SANTHE PhD Fellow
Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP) Gaborone, Botswana
Wonderful Choga is a Zimbabwean-born bioinformatician with a strong background in molecular virology and human genetics. He previously contributed to the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.529 (Omicron) in Botswana. He is a recipient of SANTHE fellowships, which supported both his graduate internship at the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) in Gaborone, Botswana and his MSc in Human Genetics (Medicine) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is also a recipient of the Merck–UNESCO Researcher’s Award.
His research interests include host–pathogen adaptation, epitope-based vaccine design, ancient pathogen genomics, and viral evolution, with a focus on HIV-1 subtype C, hepatitis viruses, and SARS-CoV-2. He is currently working on molecular genotyping and genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 to understand viral evolution across different risk groups in Botswana.
His work aims to improve understanding of emerging variants, viral adaptation, and mutations of concern, contributing to global efforts in infectious disease surveillance, vaccine design, and therapeutic development.