Student Profiles

Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, I immigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen. Growing up, I was passionate about wanting to change the healthcare system in my local community. My passion and my strong interests in STEM, led me to pursue Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), gaining first-hand exposure to what research in STEM meant.

As part of the Presidential Awards Program STEM Initiative program at UIC, I was able to explore different research areas. During my freshman and sophomore years, I studied the effect of greenhouse gases in the Arctic, analyzing soil and gas samples. The summer after my sophomore year, I had the privilege of participating in a 10-week research program at the University of Delaware. Under the supervision of Dr. Liyun Wang, I studied the impacts of the mechanosensitive ion channels, piezo 1 and 2, in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The immunolabeling, hands on techniques, and skill-sets I acquired during the 10-week program propelled me into similar research labs at my own institution. Thus, for my Honors capstone at UIC, I studied the role of the gene Tbx2 in pericytes and its relation to loss of vision in Diabetic Retinopathy, under the supervision of Dr. Henar Cuervo in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

These research experiences took my viewpoints of STEM and how I can better the healthcare system to another level. I realized I can make impactful contributions to the healthcare system through research. So, in my last semester of undergraduate studies, I applied for a post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I decided that my fellowship had to be in the cancer field. This is a disease that not only personally affected me and my family, but made me passionate about STEM to begin with. Thus, under the supervision of Dr. Christine Alewine at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), I studied pancreatic cancer. Specifically, I studied the characteristics of the GPI-anchored protein mesothelin and its role in an immunocompetent mouse model. I also contributed to the study of soluble mesothelin and how it potentially acts as a signaling molecule and promote tumorigenicity.

As a NIH-Scholar, I’ll be furthering my studies in cancer research at the NCI and the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Dr. Xin W. Wang and Dr. Daniel Muñoz-Espin, respectively. My thesis will focus on studying liver and lung cancer, with goals to develop preclinical models to study tumor senescence and metastasis for better early detection and diagnosis of cancer.