Ghanaian immunologist with a broad interest in investigating immune function among African populations in order to better address immunopathology associated with infectious and non-infectious diseases among these populations. Obtained PhD at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, and post-doctoral fellowships at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme in Kenya and subsequently at the Francis Crick Institute in London. In 2019 took up a faculty appointment at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at the University of Ghana and was one of 5 scientists selected in the inaugural round of the prestigious Crick Africa Network Fellowship.

In June 2020 founded Yemaachi Biotech (www.yemaachi.com) an immunogenomics start-up based in Accra. Yemaachi’s vision is to lower the financial burden of disease on the African continent by leveraging state-of-the-art molecular and cellular biology to develop novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic agents, that work uniformly well irrespective of genetic background. Yaw is also a fellow of the Ghana Young Academy and an Affiliate member of the African Academy of Sciences.