Donald Abbott Abungu is a Kenyan microbiologist, molecular biologist, and MSc student in Bioinformatics of Infectious Diseases and Pathogen Genomics at the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), where his research focuses on integrating pathogen genomics, climatic, and epidemiological data to better understand environmental cholera transmission and disease dynamics.
His expertise spans pathogen genomics, comparative genomics, phylogenetics, antimicrobial resistance, molecular diagnostics, environmental surveillance, and pathogen sequencing, with experience using Illumina, Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), and Sanger platforms. His bioinformatics skills include genomic data analysis, phylogenetics, and computational approaches for pathogen surveillance. His previous research includes wastewater surveillance, bacterial and fungal marker gene species identification, Escherichia coli comparative genomics, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Mpox bioinformatics analysis, SARS-CoV-2 mutation and strain analysis, and Dengue and Chikungunya sequencing.
At CERI, he contributes to research aimed at understanding infectious disease transmission through the integration of genomic and epidemiological data. His research interests include One Health surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, environmental pathogen monitoring, and emerging infectious disease preparedness, with a particular interest in contributing to African-led genomic surveillance and public-health research.