Self Introduction

My Career path

I am a seasoned and experienced pharmacist with 25 years experience in various aspects of pharmacy including pharmaceutical manufacturing, pharmaceutical research and development, clinical practice, public health and academics. I have a BPharm degree (University of Lagos, Nigeria), a MPharm degree (University of the Western Cape, Cape Town South Africa) and PhD in Bioinformatics (University of the Western Cape, Cape Town South Africa). I also have a post-graduate certificates in clinical research and drug development from the University of Basel, Basel Switzerland.

In 1997, I started my career as a production assistant and later as a raw material procurement officer for a local pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Lagos, Nigeria (Toki Dabur Productions Ltd.). In the year 2000, I completed the mandatory one year paramilitary training in Northern Nigeria, where I served as the pharmacist in charge of the military base clinic.  I was employed as a research fellow in 2001 at the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Abuja Nigeria (https://www.niprd.gov.ng/) where I was involved in the formulation, production and quality control of herbal products (a remedy for sickle cell anaemia and malaria). 

In 2005, I was posted, as the pharmacist in charge, to the Antiretroviral Therapy Clinic where I implemented various pharmaceutical care strategies for HIV infected clients under the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) project. In 2007, I joined Howard University’s Pharmacy and Continuing Education Centre as a Pharmacy Specialist/Monitoring and Evaluation officer to implement the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria (GHAIN) project. 

I came to South Africa in 2008, on the platform of a United Nation's scholarship, to join the pioneer Biotechnology Development Group of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Cape Town component. I worked for two years on the development of low-cost technologies for the production of generic biologics/biopharmaceuticals using pilot scale bioreactors and fermentation facilities. In 2011, I joined the South African Herbal Science and Medicine Institute (SAHSMI) of the University of the Western Cape, where I was involved in the development of herbal products and compilation of product quality brochure for investigational herbal medicinal products. I later became an associate lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, University of the Western Cape in the same year. In 2014, I secured a fellowship for a 3-month internship at the “Computer-Aided Drug Discovery and In-silico Lead Development” groups of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel Switzerland. 

Currently, I am an Associate Professor and I lead the Computational Pharmacology and Cheminformatics Group (CPCG) at the School of Pharmacy, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town. My research focuses on computational drug discovery and design, analysis and interpretation of chemical and bioactivity data using Cheminformatics, Bioinformatics, Machine Learning and Biostatistics techniques in conjunction with relevant in-vitro bioassays in order to discover and design novel drug candidates, especially from natural products, for infectious and non-infectious diseases. As a formulator at heart, we are also involved in polymer material modeling for novel drug delivery systems. 

My career goal is to contribute to the improvement of healthcare worldwide through research and development of drugs from natural products. My personal goals are to impart knowledge to the next generation through teaching and mentoring and to serve God and humanity.