Professor Olusegun George Ademowo
Olusegun George Ademowo was appointed in 1989 at the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training (IAMRAT) and has a joint appointment with the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria where he obtained a PhD degree. He was promoted Professor of Pharmacology & Therapeutics in 2005. He is Head of the Drug and Genetic Research unit in IAMRAT where he leads multidisciplinary research teams. His research interest is in pathogenesis of infectious diseases with special focus on malaria, helminth and HIV. His consortium recently developed a new point of care molecular diagnostic technique for detecting pathogens including malaria, rickettsia, dengue, monkeypox, and SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) viruses which was based on recombinase polymerase amplification technique in a mobile suitcase lab. He has conducted sponsored clinical trials for efficacy and safety of antimalarial drugs.
He is a visiting Professor/Research Scientist to over 50 institutions within and outside Africa including USA and Europe. His collaborators are spread across the globe in some thirty institutions. He has won several fellowships and awards including the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Germany (the most prestigious research fellowship in Europe), Fellow Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, England, Malaria Vaccine Advocacy Fellow and Fellow Academy of Medicine Specialties. He also won Volkswagen and European Commission scholarships among others. He has attended and organised more than 100 scientific conferences locally and internationally and has delivered over 100 scientific papers.
He is member of some notable learned societies such as Biochemical Society, England, Institute of Biomedical Sciences London, New York Academy of Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, German, Biotechnology Society, West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA), West African Society of Pharmacology (WASP) among others. He has served as Adviser to World Health Organisation on clinical trials of antimalarial drugs. He is Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) for European Commission Research Projects (FP7 and Horizon 2020). He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of European Commission FP7 IDEA project.
He serves on many committees at the University, National and International levels. He was Chairman of Nigeria Universities Commission Promotion of Biomedical Science Development Technical committee. He is coordinator technical committee on the framework for introduction of malaria vaccine, Federal Ministry of Health. He is also a consultant to Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
Professor Ademowo also served the Department, Faculty, College of Medicine, University College Hospital and the University of Ibadan in various administrative positions and committees, He was Sub-Dean (Postgraduate) of the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences (2002-2006, 2008-2010), Sub-Dean of Postgraduate School, 2008. He was Acting Director of the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training (2009-2011), Pioneer Head of Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science (2012- 2015) and Dean of Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences (2014-2018). He was Acting Provost of College of Medicine and Acting Provost of Postgraduate College at various times.
He was Chairman, University of Ibadan Guideline for Appointment of new Academic Staff. Chairman, Committee on transformation of the University of Ibadan Postgraduate School to Postgraduate College. He was Chairman of Sub-Committee on Appointment of Emeritus Professors. He was chairman and convener of the first College of Medicine and University College Hospital Summit.
He has obtained some research grant support from local and international agencies such as National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), European Commission, World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Tropical Disease Research (TDR), Volkswagen Foundation, European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Bothar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) and The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Germany.
Professor Ademowo continues to mentor the next generation academic and scientists. One of his pet mentorship initiatives is for the early career catch them young programme for undergraduate research students, the Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team (IBRT) in collaboration with SEAPHAGES of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Pittsburg USA. The team has successfully annotated sequences of six phage isolates and submitted to GenBank. The IBRT has 20 publications in journals and conference proceedings to its credit. He has supervised over 50 M.Sc and 20 PhD students some of whom are already Professors and are spread all over the globe in various capacities. He has over 200 academic publications in referred journals, chapter in books and conference proceedings to his credit.
