For biomedical and health researchers in Ghana, no institution carries more weight than the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR). Part of the University of Ghana, it is the country's premier biomedical research institute and one of the leading such centres in West Africa. If your work touches infectious disease, public health, immunology, or clinical research, Noguchi is where the laboratories, the expertise, and the international collaborations are — and learning how to engage with it can transform an early career.
This guide explains what Noguchi does, highlights its recent activity, and shows how researchers can collaborate, train, and ultimately publish. It links to our guide on research institutions in Ghana and to a companion on publishing in the Ghana Medical Journal.
What is the Noguchi Memorial Institute?
NMIMR was established with Japanese support and named after Dr Hideyo Noguchi, the Japanese bacteriologist who died in Accra in 1928 while researching yellow fever. Today it is a semi-autonomous institute of the University of Ghana conducting research across infectious diseases (malaria, HIV, viral haemorrhagic fevers, and more), non-communicable diseases, and public health, while serving as a national reference laboratory of strategic importance.
Its standing was demonstrated during major disease outbreaks, when its laboratories provided critical national diagnostic and surveillance capacity. The institute's official site is noguchi.ug.edu.gh.
Noguchi in 2026: active and expanding
Noguchi is not a static institution — it is continually building capacity and partnerships. In 2026 alone:
- It entered a partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to strengthen its antimalarial drug-discovery screening capacity, upgrading its high-throughput screening to test thousands of compounds far more efficiently.
- It commissioned a new Sample Reception Centre, built with World Health Organization support, to improve the receiving, registration, and storage of clinical and environmental samples.
- It continued projects spanning areas including cervical-cancer screening, alongside long-standing collaborations with international partners.
For a researcher, this activity matters: a growing institute means more projects, more training, and more openings for collaborators.
How to collaborate with Noguchi
Engagement with Noguchi typically happens through one of these routes:
- Postgraduate research and supervision. Many MPhil and PhD students in the biomedical sciences conduct their research at Noguchi, often co-supervised by its scientists, gaining access to laboratories they could not otherwise use.
- Training and short courses. Noguchi runs training in laboratory techniques, bioinformatics, and research methods — a route to build skills and connections.
- Joining funded projects. The institute's many grant-funded studies need research assistants, laboratory scientists, data managers, and field staff. This is often the most realistic paid entry point.
- Internships and national service. Common first steps for graduates entering biomedical research.
- Formal research partnerships. Established researchers collaborate as co-investigators on grants and multi-site studies.
The practical approach is the same as with any institute: identify the relevant department or scientist, and approach with a specific, well-defined idea or a clear offer of skills — not a generic enquiry.
From research to publication
Collaboration produces data; a career is built on publishing that data. Health researchers working with Noguchi commonly publish in international journals and in respected regional outlets — most notably the Ghana Medical Journal, the country's leading open-access medical journal. If you are aiming there, read our dedicated guide on publishing in the Ghana Medical Journal, which covers its submission process and how to prepare a manuscript.
Whichever journal you target, the work of turning results into a publishable manuscript is the same: a clear structure, a rigorous methodology section, accurate reporting, and — critically — correct, verifiable citations to the literature.
Make your biomedical writing count
The difference between good data and a published paper is disciplined writing. PaceResearcher helps biomedical researchers produce journal-ready manuscripts: structured drafts, a defensible methodology, and real inline citations from genuine literature — never fabricated references, which matter especially in medicine, where a wrong citation can mislead. Pair that with collaboration at an institute like Noguchi and you have everything you need to move from bench to publication.
For the wider landscape, return to our guide on research institutions in Ghana; to publish your medical work, continue to publishing in the Ghana Medical Journal.