Professor Cynthia Amaning Danquah, is an Associate Professor in Pharmacology and current head of the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. She obtained her PhD in Natural Product Drug Discovery from the School of Pharmacy, University College London, United Kingdom. Her MPhil. Pharmacology and B. Pharm degrees were obtained from KNUST, and she holds a certificate in Pharmacovigilance from the University of Groningen, Netherlands. She is a registered Pharmacist and a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. 

Professor Cynthia Amaning Danquah was employed as a lecturer in the department of Pharmacology in November 2009, promoted to the rank of Senior lecturer in August 2014 and subsequently to Associate Professor in August 2021. She has since her appointment as a senior member rendered diverse service to the University, Ghana and the International Community. She has served as an external examiner for local and international universities, as a reviewer of grant applications and journals for both local and international institutions and member of editorial board of journals. She has worked as a visiting scholar/research associate to Birkbeck, University of London, University of Nottingham, Kings College London, and the University of Oxford all in the UK; as well as a Pharmacist Preceptor for the Roseman University of Health Sciences, Nevada, USA.

She was awarded the Africa Oxford Research Development Award (£50,000) in 2020 to collaborate with the University of Oxford, UK on natural product drug discovery to tackle antibiotic resistance and develop new antibacterial agents to fight resistance in tuberculosis (TB). She is also a recipient of the KNUST Research Fund (KREF) Interdisciplinary award and KREF Seed grant, 2019. She is an Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS); Country Ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and member of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS). To mark International Women’s Day in 2022, she was awarded the Ghana Women Excellence Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Social and Economic Development of Ghana in the category of Tertiary Education and Scientific Research under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection of Ghana.

Her research area of interest is in Natural product Pharmacology and Toxicology and she has conducted research with several peer-reviewed publications, graduated post graduate students, and participated in several international conferences and workshops across the globe including London, Glasgow, Birmingham, in the UK; Washington DC, San Diego California and Ohio Northern in USA; Copenhagen, Denmark; Chatenay-Malabry, France; Düsseldorf, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland in Europe; Cameroon, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cote d’ivoire in Africa. She is particularly interested in mentoring young girls to take up courses and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Areas of research:

• Inflammo-Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Reproductive Pharmacology and Pharmacovigillance
• Natural Product Pharmacology

Publications and Articles

Danquah, C.A., Maitra, A., Gibbons, S., Faull, J., and Bhakta, S. 2016. HT-SPOTi: A rapid drug susceptibility test (DST) to evaluate antibiotic resistance profiles and novel chemicals for anti-infective drug discovery. Current Protocol in Microbiology 40:17.8.1-17.8.12. doi: 10.1002/9780471729259.mc1708s40

Khalida Rizi, Sudaxshina Murdan, Cynthia A. Danquah, Jane Faull, Sanjib Bhakta 2015 Development of a rapid, reliable and quantitative method — “SPOTi” for testing antifungal efficacy Journal of Microbiological Methods 117, 36–40 doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2015.07.005

Arundhati Maitra, Cynthia A Danquah, Francesca Scotti, Tracey K Howard, Tengku K Kamil & Sanjib Bhakta (2015) Tackling tuberculosis: Insights from an international TB Summit in London, Virulence, 6:6, 661-672, DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2015.1060396

Danquah C. A., G.A. Koffuor, K. Annan, E.C. Ketor, 2012. The Anthelmintic activity of Vernonia amygdalina (Asteraceae) and Alstonia boonei De Wild (Apocynaceae). Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences 1 (1): 21-27

Danquah C. A., G. A. Koffuor, B. P. Anto and K. A. Nimako, 2011. The indiscriminate use of sex enhancing products among Ghanaians: Prevalence and potential risk. 
Pelagia Resarch Library Advances in Applied Science Research, 2 (5): 350-359.

Woode, E., C. A. Danquah and E. Boakye Gyasi, 2011.Anti-Arthritic effects of an ethanolic extract of Capparis erythrocarpos Isert roots in Freund’s adjuvant Induced Arthritis in Rats. Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology 20834-JPT-AJ doi: 10.3923/jpt.2011.201.217

Koffuor, G.A., E. Woode and C. A. Danquah, 2011. Potential Drug interactions of a Polyherbal Antihypertensive mixture in Ghana. Pelagia Research Library, Der Pharmacia Sinica 2(6):39-45.

Danquah, C.A., E. Woode, E.B. Gyasi, M. Duwiejua and C. Ansah, 2011. Anti-Inflammatory and antipyretic effects of an ethanolic extract of Capparis erythrocarpos Isert roots Research Journal of Medicinal Plants, 5: 158-168. doi:10.3923/RJMP.2011.158.168

Woode,E., E.Boakye-Gyasi, C.A.Danquah, C.Ansah and M. Duwiejua, 2009. Anti-arthritic effects of Palisota hirsuta K.Schum. Leaf extract in Freund’s adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. International Journal of Pharmacology, 5: 181-190. doi:10.3923/ijp.2009.181.190.

Woode,E., C.A.Danquah, E. Boakye Gyasi, C. Ansah and G. Ainooson, 2009. Antinociceptive effects of an ethanolic extract of Capparis erythrocarpos Isert roots in the Mice Formalin Test. International Journal of Pharmacology, 5: 354-361 doi: 10.3923/ijp.2009.354.361

Technical Report:

Daniel Afriyie, Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Kwame Ohene Buabeng with technical support from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 2011. Evidence Summary for the Ghana Essential Medicines Committee: Dispersible amoxicillin tablets (scored); 250 mg and 500 mg for children. This evidence summary was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the ‘Better Medicines for Children Project’, co-ordinated by the World Health Organization, in partnership with the Ghana Ministry of Health.

Cynthia A. Danquah, Eleftheria Kakagianni, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Mukhlesur Rahman, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy D. McHugh, Paul Stapleton, Sanjib Bhakta, Simon Gibbons, 2016. Analogues of Natural Product Disulfides from Allium stipitatum Demonstrate Potent Anti- tubercular Activities through Drug Efflux Pump and Biofilm Inhibition. Angwandte chemie (publication in press).

Conference proceedings

(Oral presentations)

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of natural product disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities through drug efflux pump and biofilm inhibition. UCL School of Pharmacy Research Day, April 2016 in London.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of natural product disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities through drug efflux pump and biofilm inhibition. British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Antibiotic resistance mechanisms (BSAC-ARM) workshop, November, 2015 in Birmingham, UK.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of natural product disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities through drug efflux pump and biofilm inhibition. Won the Bill and Melinda Gates Travel Award to present research at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2015 in San Diego, California, USA.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of natural product disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities. Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (UCL/ Birkbeck) Friday wrap January 2015 at UCL main Campus, London.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Antimycobacterial activity of synthetic analogues of the bioactive natural product disulfides. Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 2014 in Washington DC, USA.

(Poster presentations)

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of Pyridine-N-oxide disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities and inhibit mycobacterial drug efflux pumps. Poster presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), April 2015 at Copenhagen, Denmark.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Arundhati Maitra, Proma Khondkar, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of pyridine-N-oxide disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular specific activities and inhibit drug efflux pumps. Poster for the ULLA Summer School, July 2015 in Paris, France.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Arundhati Maitra, Proma Khondkar, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of pyridine-N-oxide disulfides from Allium stipitatumdemonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities and inhibit mycobacterial drug efflux pumps. British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Antibiotic resistance mechanisms (BSAC-ARM) workshop, 2014 in Birmingham, UK.

Poster for the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 2014, Washington DC. Synthetic analogues of pyridine-N- oxide disulfides from Allium stipitatum as efflux pump inhibitors of Mycobacterium aurum. Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Elephtheria Kakagianni, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Elephtheria Kakagianni, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Evaluation of antimycobacterial properties of phytochemicals from the plant family Alliaceae. Poster for the TB Summit 2014, North Greenwich, London.

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Phytochemicals from Alliaceae and evaluation of their anti-tubercular properties, poster for the UCL School of Pharmacy Research day, September 2013.

(E-poster presentation)

Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Proma Khondkar, Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Timothy McHugh, Sanjib Bhakta and Simon Gibbons. Synthetic analogues of natural product disulfides from Allium stipitatum demonstrate potent anti-tubercular activities and inhibit mycobacterial drug efflux pumps. The World Congress on Infectious Diseases OMICs infectious Diseases Conference, August 2015, West Drayton, London, UK.

(Peer reviewed abstracts)

Koffuor, G.A., E. Woode and C. A. Danquah. Potential Drug interactions of a Polyherbal Antihypertensive mixture in Ghana. Proceedings of the 5th Sub-RegionalScientific Meeting of West African Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES). 6- 9th August 2012. Osun State, Nigeria.

Danquah C. A., G. A. Koffuor, B. P. Anto and K. A. Nimako. The indiscriminate use of sex enhancing products among Ghanaians: Prevalence and potential risk. 11-13th July 2012. Presented at The 5th All Africa Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Conference (ACP)Accra, Ghana.

Danquah C. A., Koffuor G.A., Annan K., Ketor C. The Antihelmintic activity of Vernonia amygdalina (Asteraceae) and Alstonia boonei De Wild (Apocynaceae). Proceedings of the West African Society for Pharmacology conference WASP/SOAP 12-16th July, 2011, Kumasi, Ghana.

Danquah C. A. and A. Dodoo. Risk assessment of Pharmaceuticals in the environment and Ecopharmacovigilance. Presented at proceedings of the International Conference on Water and Sanitation organized by the Ghana Chemical Society, KNUST. 16 -18thDecember 2010. Kumasi, Ghana.

Woode E., C.S. Abaidoo, A. Alhassan, C. A. Danquah. Haematological and biochemical profile of fruits extract of Xylopia aethiopica(Dunal) A. Rich in Albino Rats. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of the College of Health Sciences, KNUST. 26th - 27thAugust 2010. Theme: Reproductive and Child Health- Current Trends and Challenges.

Woode E., C.S. Abaidoo, A. Alhassan, C. A. Danquah. Effect of Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich (Annonaceae) fruit extract on spermatogenesis, plasma gonadotrophins and testosterone in male albino rats. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of the College of Health Sciences, KNUST. 26th - 27th August 2010. Theme: Reproductive and Child Health - Current Trends and Challenges.

Danquah C. A., E. Woode, and E. Boakye Gyasi. Anti-Arthritic effects of an ethanolic extract of Capparis erythrocarpos Isert roots in Freund’s Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis in Rats. Proceedings of the 4th Scientific Meeting of Western Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES). 1st - 4th August, 2010. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Danquah C. A., E. Woode, and E. Boakye Gyasi. Antinociceptive effects of an ethanolic extract of Capparis erythrocarpos Isert roots in the Mice Formalin Test, 2010. Proceedings of the Commonwealth Pharmacist/Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana Congress. Accra, Ghana.

Danquah C.A. and D. A. Danquah. Pharmacy Education and Pharmacy Practice in Ghana, 27th April, 2012. Presented to Faculty and students of Ohio Northern University, Ohio, USA.