Felix Munkonge obituary
My father, Felix Munkonge, who has died aged 64 after a stroke, was a biochemist recognised for the key role he played in coordinating the clinical testing of gene therapy as a potential treatment for cystic fibrosis. He was also a contributor to the team at AstraZeneca that supported the manufacturing capability of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Felix joined AstraZeneca as a project manager in November 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and was responsible for managing laboratoryscale collaborations with several chief medical officers around the world. That work made a significant contribution to ensuring the global availability of the vaccine.
Born in Kasama, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Felix was the son of Magdalena (nee Kapinda), a teacher and entrepreneur, and her husband, Geoffrey, a permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance. He was educated at St Canisius secondary school and brought up in Lusaka, but moved to the UK at the age of 13 to study at Redrice boarding school in Hampshire, where lifelong friendships were made.
Remaining in Britain, he went on to London to study for a BSc in biochemistry (1979-81) at Chelsea College, University of London (nowChelsea College of Science and Technology), then to King’s College London to do a PhD (1982-85), and finally to the University of Southampton for his postdoctoral training.
In 1988 he returned to live in London with his girlfriend, Jane Laredo, an English teacher, and joined the Thrombosis Research Institute as a postdoctoral research fellow (1988-92).
He and Jane married in 1989, and they had two children. Felix loved nothing more than spending time with family and friends, and was passionate about keeping strong ties with his Zambian roots, visiting the country on many occasions.
In 1992 Felix joined the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) in London, initially as a research fellow, then as an associate and lecturer for more than 10 years. A larger-than-life character with a great sense of humour, he was a cornerstone of the NHLI team for more than a decade, and it was during his time there that he made contributions to the gene therapy programme for cystic fibrosis run by the faculty of medicine at Imperial College. He was frequently consulted by other scientists within the NHLI for his cell biology expertise.
After the NHLI Felix became a consultant biochemist and also joined King’s College London in 2016 to project manage the team at the Centre for Gene Therapy & Regenerative Medicine until 2020. Over the course of his career he analysed, interpreted, authored and coauthored 38 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
He is survived by Jane and his children, Jack and me.