Irene is a Senior Research Scientist at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya. She works in the Department of Biotechnology’s Tissue Culture and Transformation Laboratory. She graduated with a Higher Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology from Kenya Polytechnic, Nairobi in 1985, specializing in Microbiology and Immunology. She initially worked as a Technologist in the Microbiology Department of the University of Nairobi and later at the Center for Virus Research.

Irene graduated with a Master of Science Degree in Biotechnology from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, in 2004. Her master’s thesis work was in Plant Biotechnology, focusing on genetic modification of Sweetpotato for viral resistance. From November 2004 to March 2006 Irene attended a hands-on training program at the International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology (ILTAB), of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The training was funded by USAID and was aimed at enhancing skills in molecular biology and cassava transgenic technologies

Currently Irene is a graduate student at Kenyatta University. She recently returned to ILTAB as part of the BioCassava Plus team at the Danforth Plant Science Center that is conducting research for the nutritional enhancement and viral resistance of cassava through genetic modification.  This work is under the sponsorship of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Towards her PhD thesis Irene is evaluating a range of putative root specific promoters for effective transgene expression in the tuberous roots of cassava.