A Ghanaian Scientist’s breakthrough research on fluorescent molecular probes could transform how the world detects cancer at its earliest stages.

“When cancer is found early, survival rates soar above 90%. When found late, they collapse below 30%.”

The gap between life and death often depends on the diagnostic tools we have.

Solomon Yamoah Effah
PhD Candidate, Physical Chemistry – Walker Lab, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
ORCID: 0000-0003-1342-8148
March 2026
 
A Son of Ghana, Working at the Frontiers of Cancer Science

In a modest but powerful computational chemistry laboratory at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, a young Ghanaian scientist named Solomon Yamoah Effah is doing work that could fundamentally change how cancer is detected around the world — and, critically, in Ghana and across Africa, where the disease kills with disproportionate ferocity because it is almost always found too late.

Solomon’s research focuses on the computational design and study of fluorescent molecular probes — tiny, light-emitting molecules that can be engineered to interact with DNA and other biological molecules in ways that reveal the presence of cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages. His published work, appearing in leading international journals including the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (an American Chemical Society flagship journal) and Electronic Structure (IOP Publishing), demonstrates how the strategic design of these probes can be optimized through computational methods to control their fluorescence behavior, paving the way for next-generation cancer diagnostic tools.

This is not abstract science conducted in isolation from the real world. It is research that speaks directly to a crisis unfolding across Ghana, across Africa, and across the developing world — a crisis in which cancer kills not because it cannot be treated, but because it is not detected in time.

The Cancer Crisis in Ghana: A Silent Emergency

The statistics from Ghana’s own health authorities paint a sobering picture. Speaking before Parliament in November 2025, Deputy Health Minister Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah revealed that Ghana recorded approximately 3,000 cervical cancer cases in 2024, with roughly 2,500 of those patients dying from the disease — a mortality rate exceeding 83%. The reason, she said, was devastating in its simplicity: “By the time we diagnose or find them out, it is too late, and there’s nothing we can do.”

The broader cancer picture in Ghana is equally alarming. According to data from the Global Cancer Observatory reported by GhanaWeb, MyJoyOnline, and other Ghanaian news outlets, Ghana recorded over 27,000 new cancer cases and nearly 18,000 cancer deaths in 2022. Breast cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Ghanaian women, claims approximately one out of every two women diagnosed. More than 5,000 new breast cancer cases are recorded annually, and the case-fatality rate hovers near 47%. Liver cancer is even more lethal, killing roughly 90% of those diagnosed. Prostate cancer affects over 3,000 Ghanaian men each year, with more than half diagnosed only at advanced stages.

As reported by MyJoyOnline during their dedicated Joy Cancer Awareness Month in October 2025, oncologists across the country have sounded alarm after alarm. Dr. Nana Ama Wadee, a clinical oncologist at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, warned that lung cancer mortality in Ghana virtually mirrors its incidence — meaning that nearly every patient diagnosed is dying, because the disease is detected far too late. Dr Stephen Kpatsi of the Sweden Ghana Medical Centre urged early detection, explaining that cancer diagnosed at an early stage is curable, and that Ghana has the specialists and facilities to treat it — if only patients come forward in time.

GhanaWeb has reported extensively on the infrastructure gap: Ghana has only six main cancer treatment centres (three public, three private), all chronically overstretched. The Breast Cancer Unit at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital alone receives a minimum of 600 new breast cancer cases every year, with some of the longest clinic days in the entire surgical department. Dr Josephine Nsaful has publicly called for more cancer centres to be established across the country to relieve the burden.

ModernGhana has documented the gap from the community level, reporting on low turnout at prostate cancer screening exercises and publishing expert commentary emphasizing that early cancer treatment is “not just a medical issue” but “a national development issue.” The Ghana Health Service, under Ag. Director-General Prof Kaba Akoriyea, has announced plans to establish a Cancer Treatment and Research Centre and deploy AI-powered diagnostic systems — initiatives that reflect the government’s recognition that Ghana’s cancer diagnostic capacity must be dramatically expanded.

The thread that runs through every one of these reports is the same: the single most important intervention Ghana needs is the ability to detect cancer earlier. This is precisely what Solomon Yamoah Effah’s research aims to enable.

How Solomon’s Research Works: Fluorescent Probes and DNA

At its core, cancer is a disease of uncontrolled DNA replication. Normal cells copy their DNA and divide in a tightly regulated way, with molecular checkpoints to catch and repair errors. When these checkpoints fail — through mutations in genes like p53, BRCA1, or BRCA2 — cells begin dividing uncontrollably, accumulating further damage and eventually forming tumors. The ability to visualize and understand these processes at the molecular level is essential to developing better ways to detect cancer before it becomes untreatable.

This is where fluorescent probes come in. A fluorescent probe is a specially designed molecule that emits light (fluoresces) when it interacts with a specific biological target. Think of it as a molecular flashlight that “lights up” when it encounters something abnormal in a cell — such as a cancer-associated DNA mutation, an overexpressed enzyme, or an abnormal change in the chemical environment of a tumor. Fluorescent probes allow scientists and clinicians to see biological processes in real time, with extraordinary sensitivity and without the need for invasive procedures.

Solomon’s Perylene-Based Fluorescent Nucleotide Research

Solomon’s published work focuses specifically on perylene-modified fluorescent nucleotides — synthetic molecules created by attaching perylene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon known for its exceptional fluorescent brightness (with a fluorescence quantum yield of approximately 0.94), directly to the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

In his 2022 paper in Electronic Structure (DOI: 10.1088/2516-1075/aca4ff), Solomon and his co-authors used a combination of classical molecular dynamics simulations and excited-state quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) Born–Oppenheimer dynamics to study how perylene behaves when attached to cytidine (a DNA/RNA building block) at different positions, and how the naturally occurring carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (B[a]PDE) interacts with guanine in DNA. The study revealed a critical finding: the angle between the fluorescent tag and the nucleobase controls whether the probe stays fluorescent or is quenched through a process called intramolecular charge transfer (ICT). Specifically, when the perylene tag and the nucleobase reach certain planar orientations, an electron rapidly transfers between them, “turning off” the fluorescence. By understanding which functionalization positions on the nucleobase resist this planarization, the team identified design principles for creating brighter, longer-lasting fluorescent probes.

The B[a]PDE-guanine system studied in this paper is directly relevant to cancer: benzo[a]pyrene is one of the most well-known chemical carcinogens, found in tobacco smoke, grilled foods, and environmental pollutants. When it forms adducts (chemical bonds) with DNA, it can cause the mutations that initiate cancer. Understanding the photophysics of these DNA adducts provides crucial insight into how DNA damage from carcinogens can be detected using fluorescence-based methods.

Solomon’s more recent 2025 paper in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c02223), published in a special issue titled “Editing DNA and RNA through Computations,” dramatically expanded this work. In this study, Solomon and his team systematically investigated perylene attached to all four natural nucleobases — guanine, adenine, thymine, and uracil — at multiple functionalization positions, with and without phosphate groups, and with different linker chemistries (direct attachment versus ethynylene/alkyne linkers). This comprehensive investigation of 13 unique molecular systems with over 520 picoseconds of QM/MM dynamics produced several landmark findings:

The “magic angle” of fluorescence quenching: A critical 90° dihedral angle between the perylene tag and the nucleobase consistently drives rapid fluorescence quenching through charge transfer. This finding, demonstrated across multiple nucleobase types, provides a universal design principle: if you can prevent the probe from reaching this 90° geometry, you can preserve its fluorescence and make it brighter.

Position matters profoundly: The attachment position on the nucleobase dramatically influences quenching behaviour. For guanine, positions 7 and 8 showed high quenching propensity, while position 2 maintained stable fluorescence. For adenine, both positions 2 and 8 preserved fluorescence, making adenine an excellent scaffold for building bright probes.

Phosphorylation protects fluorescence: The presence of a phosphate group on the nucleotide significantly reduces quenching, likely through electrostatic stabilization of the excited state. This is a practical finding with direct implications for designing probes that will function in biological environments where nucleotides naturally carry phosphate groups.

Ethynylene linkers enhance brightness: The addition of a conjugated alkyne (–C≡C–) linker between the perylene and the nucleobase reduces the angular dependence of quenching, effectively acting as a “buffer” that maintains fluorescence across a wider range of molecular orientations. This finding aligns with experimental observations that perylene-ethynylene nucleosides exhibit both strong fluorescence and broad-spectrum antiviral activity through photosensitization.

Charge transfer directionality depends on the nucleobase: In guanine-based systems, electrons can transfer either from the base to the tag or from the tag to the base, depending on the initial geometry. In adenine systems, the fluorescent state remains stable without significant charge transfer. This nucleobase-dependent behavior offers another tunable parameter for probe design.

Why This Matters for Cancer Detection

The design principles established by Solomon’s research are not mere academic exercises. They provide the computational foundation for creating a new generation of fluorescent diagnostic tools for cancer. Here is the chain of impact:

Brighter probes mean earlier detection. A fluorescent probe with a higher quantum yield produces a stronger, clearer signal. This means smaller quantities of cancer biomarkers — circulating tumor DNA fragments, overexpressed miRNAs, mutated gene products — can be detected. The ability to detect cancer biomarkers at lower concentrations translates directly into earlier diagnosis, when cancer is most treatable.

DNA-targeted probes can identify cancer-causing mutations directly. Because Solomon’s probes are designed to interact with specific nucleobases, they can, in principle, be engineered to detect the specific DNA sequences or modifications associated with particular cancers. A probe that lights up in the presence of a BRCA mutation, for example, could be used in a simple screening test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk.

Computational design accelerates development. By using advanced computational methods — molecular dynamics, time-dependent density functional theory, QM/MM simulations — to predict fluorescence behavior before a probe is ever synthesized, Solomon’s approach dramatically reduces the time and cost of developing new diagnostic molecules. This is especially important for making diagnostics that are affordable enough for use in resource-limited settings like Ghana.

Perylene’s dual functionality. Solomon’s research notes that perylene-ethynylene nucleosides exhibit not only fluorescence but also photosensitizing properties that have demonstrated antiviral activity against viruses including SARS-CoV-2 and tick-borne encephalitis. This dual functionality opens the door to multi-purpose diagnostic and therapeutic molecules — probes that can both detect disease and contribute to treatment.

What This Means for Ghana

For Ghana, the implications of this research are immediate and deeply personal. Every statistic cited above — the 2,500 cervical cancer deaths, the 47% breast cancer fatality rate, the overwhelmed cancer units, the patients who arrive only at Stage IV — represents a tragedy that could potentially be averted with earlier detection.

Ghana’s current cancer diagnostic infrastructure is severely limited. The country’s six cancer treatment centres lack the advanced molecular diagnostic tools routinely available in high-income countries. When the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research commissioned its BD S8 flow cytometer in February 2025 — described as the most advanced of its kind in Africa and the Middle East — it was a landmark achievement. But one machine at one institute cannot serve an entire nation of 33 million people.

Fluorescent probe-based diagnostic technologies offer Ghana something that conventional technologies cannot: scalability and affordability. Unlike MRI scanners ($1–3 million each), PET-CT systems ($3–5 million), or next-generation DNA sequencers, fluorescent probe-based assays can potentially be miniaturized into portable, handheld devices suitable for use in district hospitals, rural clinics, and community health outreach programmes. A healthcare worker armed with a fluorescent probe-based point-of-care device could screen for breast cancer biomarkers, cervical cancer markers, or liver cancer indicators during a routine community health visit — exactly the kind of “catch it early” intervention that Ghana’s Pinktober 2025 campaign and Joy Cancer Awareness Month have been calling for.

The Ghana Health Service’s announced plans to deploy AI-powered diagnostic systems and establish cancer research centres represent an ideal platform for integrating computational fluorescent probe research. Solomon’s work, which already uses AI-adjacent computational methods (machine learning, molecular simulations, electronic structure calculations), is precisely the kind of translational research that could feed directly into Ghana’s emerging cancer technology ecosystem.

What This Means for Africa

Africa’s cancer emergency extends far beyond Ghana. According to GLOBOCAN data, sub-Saharan Africa recorded over 800,000 new cancer cases and 520,000 cancer deaths in 2020 alone. Breast and cervical cancers accounted for three in ten of all cancers diagnosed across both sexes. The mortality-to-incidence ratio on the continent is the highest in the world, reflecting the devastating impact of late-stage diagnosis. The WHO estimates that nearly 2,000 Africans die from cancer every day.

The infrastructure gap across the continent is staggering. Most sub-Saharan African countries have fewer than one pathologist per million people. Population-based cancer registries — the basic data systems needed to even track the disease — are absent in many countries. Of the 48 sub-Saharan nations in GLOBOCAN, 16 lacked registry data entirely.

In this context, fluorescent probe-based diagnostics represent a uniquely appropriate technology. They offer high sensitivity at low cost, can function without the massive laboratory infrastructure that conventional diagnostic methods require, and can be designed for multiplexed detection — screening for multiple cancer types simultaneously from a single sample. For a continent where the nearest oncologist may be hundreds of kilometers away, a portable fluorescent diagnostic device could be transformative.

By 2050, cancer incidence in several African countries is projected to rise by up to 200%. Without a dramatic improvement in early detection capacity, these projections translate into millions of preventable deaths. Research like Solomon’s, which provides the computational blueprints for building better, cheaper, more effective fluorescent diagnostic tools, is not a luxury — it is a necessity.

What This Means for the World

Globally, approximately 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million cancer deaths were recorded in 2022. The International Agency for Research on Cancer projects this burden will reach 35 million new cases annually by 2050. The disparity in cancer outcomes between high-income and low-income countries — driven primarily by the gap in diagnostic capacity — is one of the most significant health inequities of our time. Five-year breast cancer survival is 90% in the United States and 66% in India; for many African countries, it is below 50%.

Fluorescent probe research occupies a central place in the global effort to close this gap. Recent breakthroughs demonstrate the momentum in this field: in 2025, researchers at Michigan State University developed a compact imaging system using fluorescent nanoparticles that can distinguish cancerous tissue from healthy cells with sensitivity four times greater than comparable commercial systems. Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests using molecular biomarkers have shown the potential to shift cancer diagnosis from late stages to early stages on a population-wide scale. The US National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot initiative has identified advanced imaging and early detection as priority areas for investment.

Solomon’s computational research contributes to this global effort by providing the fundamental structure-function knowledge needed to design the next generation of fluorescent probes. His discovery that a 90° dihedral angle universally triggers fluorescence quenching, and his systematic identification of which nucleobase positions, linker types, and phosphorylation states preserve brightness, offer a rational design framework that experimentalists worldwide can use to create better probes faster and more cheaply.

The Scientist: A Son of Ghana, Serving Two Nations

Solomon Yamoah Effah grew up in Ghana and earned his undergraduate degree with First Class Honours from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He is now completing his PhD in Physical Chemistry at Wayne State University’s Walker Lab in Detroit, Michigan. His doctoral research spans computational medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, molecular dynamics simulations, and machine learning for drug discovery.

He has published in four peer-reviewed journals: the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Electronic Structure. He holds a provisional patent contribution related to his fluorescent probe research. He serves as a peer reviewer for ACS Omega and the International Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, and is the Vice President of the Wayne State NOBCChE (National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers) Chapter.

Beyond the laboratory, Solomon is deeply embedded in service to both his local and Ghanaian communities. He is a Deacon at The Church of Pentecost USA Inc., Detroit District, where he leads the Prayer Warriors Ministry and coordinates Bible study groups. He volunteers with the Motor City STEAM Foundation, mentoring Detroit youth in science and technology. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, bass guitar, and keyboard.

Solomon’s story is a testament to what is possible when talent from Ghana is given access to world-class scientific training. His work bridges two worlds: the advanced computational infrastructure of a major American research university and the urgent healthcare needs of his home country and continent. He represents the best of Ghana’s intellectual diaspora — a scientist whose work has the potential to save lives on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Message: Catch It Early

The Pinktober 2025 breast cancer campaign in Ghana rallied behind a theme that captures the essence of everything described in this article: “Catch It Early, Treat It Right and Survive It.”

Solomon Yamoah Effah’s research on fluorescent perylene-modified nucleotides is, at its heart, about giving the world the tools to catch it early. His computational investigations reveal, for the first time with this level of systematic detail, how the molecular architecture of fluorescent probes determines whether they shine brightly enough to detect cancer at its most treatable stages. His work provides the design rules that will guide the development of affordable, scalable, point-of-care diagnostic technologies — the kinds of tools that could finally close the diagnostic gap that is killing thousands of Ghanaians and millions of Africans every year.

In a nation where 83% of cervical cancer patients die because diagnosis comes too late, in a continent where nearly 2,000 people die from cancer daily, and in a world where 9.7 million people lose their lives to the disease every year, the ability to detect cancer earlier is not a scientific curiosity. It is a matter of life and death. And a young Ghanaian scientist in Detroit is helping to make it possible.

For Media Enquiries:
Solomon Yamoah Effah
syeffah@wayne.edu | solomonyamoah5@gmail.com
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DSj8sKMAAAAJ
ORCID: 0000-0003-1342-8148
GitHub: https://github.com/syeffah5
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syeffah5/
 
Key Publications by Solomon Yamoah Effah

1. Effah, S. Y.; Hix, M. A.; Walker, A. R. “Strategic Design of Fluorescent Perylene-Modified Nucleic Acid Monomers: Position-, Phosphorylation-, and Linker-Dependent Control of Electron Transfer.” Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c02223. Published in the special issue “Editing DNA and RNA through Computations.”

2. Effah, S. Y.; Kaushalya, W. K. D. N.; Hix, M. A.; Walker, A. R. “Computational Investigations of the Excited State Dynamics and Quenching Mechanisms of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon DNA Adducts in Solution.” Electronic Structure 4, 044003 (2022). DOI: 10.1088/2516-1075/aca4ff.

Ghana Cancer Statistics and News Sources Referenced

GhanaWeb – “2025 Breast Care Campaign launched with call for early diagnosis, right treatment” (September 29, 2025)

GhanaWeb – “Why Ghana needs more cancer centres” (December 8, 2025)

GhanaWeb – “Close to 2,000 Ghanaians die from colorectal cancer annually” (March 31, 2025)

GhanaWeb – “Ghana recorded 2,500 cervical cancer deaths in 2024 – Deputy health minister” (November 5, 2025)

GhanaWeb – “Public urged to engage in regular health check for early detection of cancer” (February 6, 2026)

MyJoyOnline – “Weak health systems, late diagnosis kill half of breast cancer patients in Ghana annually – WHO data” (October 3, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “Joy Cancer Awareness Month: Late diagnosis fuelling high lung cancer deaths in Ghana” (October 16, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “Joy Cancer Awareness Month: Chemotherapy saves lives” (October 9, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “Noguchi Memorial Institute introduces machine to enhance advanced cancer diagnosis in Ghana” (February 13, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “Ghana to launch first National Prostate Cancer Registry amid rising cases” (September 8, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “Early Detection Saves Lives: Dei Foundation champions breast cancer awareness in rural Ghana” (October 28, 2025)

MyJoyOnline – “‘Enough of the gone too soon’ – BCI calls for urgent action against breast cancer” (October 4, 2025)

ModernGhana – “Early Cancer Treatment Saves Lives In Ghana” (February 5, 2026)

ModernGhana – “GHS launches 2025 Expo” reporting on AI Diagnosis Deployment Project (July 18, 2025)

ModernGhana – Health section reporting on low prostate cancer screening turnout and HPV vaccination campaigns (2025)

Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN 2022), WHO; American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Figures 2025; Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa; National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot Initiative.