Kingsley Amoako

Dr. Kingsley Amoako is currently the Director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Lethbridge Laboratory. The Lethbridge laboratory is the CFIA Centre for Vector Borne Disease Research and also the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Reference Lab for Anthrax, BSE, and BVD. As an OIE expert for Anthrax, he is the Head of the OIE Reference Lab for Anthrax at the CFIA Lethbridge Laboratory.

Dr. Amoako began his research career work in Canada as a postdoc at the University of Saskatchewan with VIDO and then briefly with the Department of Animal Biotechnology after obtaining his PhD in veterinary microbiology from Japan. Dr. Amoako then joined the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as the Principal Investigator for the Food Biodefense project at the Lethbridge Lab and pioneered research work in Canada on the development of novel rapid methods for the detection and characterization of biothreat agents including anthrax in food, as part of Canada’s foodborne bioterrorism response preparedness. He has also been actively involved in several R&D initiatives on genomics characterization of  food borne pathogens.

Dr. Amoako is a Visiting Professor at the Miyazaki University in Japan and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. As an expert on work with biothreat agents, he has been providing support for the Global Affairs Canada biological weapons threat reduction program projects and currently leads a biothreat reduction project initiative in Ghana as part of efforts to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa.