How biomarkers can identify cancer in its early stages- Emmanuel Okwelogu

UGO AMDADI

A Nigerian pharmacist and Ph.D. researcher at the University of Manchester, Emmanuel  Okwelogu is leading a novel work  on how biomarkers can identify cancer in its early stages.

In a video he posted at The Scientists’ Channel ,Okwelogu said that the early diagnosis of cancer can significantly improve patient survival rates . In his video,  https://bit.ly/38hpDps Emmanuel Okwelogu  discusses his research using 2D nanomaterials for the discovery of novel biomarkers that can aid the early detection of certain cancers.

Okwelogu also highlights the importance of biosafety in this work and reveals how biosafety cabinets are critical to preventing downstream experimental failures.

Globally, cancer is a major leading health problem with an estimated 10 million incidences and 6 million cancer deaths annually. In Nigeria, an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occur annually, and 102,000 new cases are diagnosed from its population of 200 million people.

As we speak there is no known cure for cancer patients and that has been a major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry globally.

Industry experts says the challenges we are facing are complex and will require an increasingly broad spectrum of expertise. From basic research to clinical trials and disease prevention, the cancer field needs to promote increased open access to resources such as gene expression and radiomics data, and patient tissue samples.

It could be recalled that Emmanuel Okwelogu completed his 5-year Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in 2015 at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. After the completion of his professional clinical pharmacy training, in 2019 Emmanuel obtained an MSc in Genes, Drugs and Stem Cells – Novel therapies at Imperial College, London.

His collaborative research project between the National Heart and Lung Institute and Dept. of Bioengineering was focused on the development of biodegradable nanoparticles for gene therapy delivery to lungs epithelial cells.

In 2020, Emmanuel joined the Nanomedicine lab after being offered a 4 year CDT Ph.D. studentship in Graphene NOWNANO at the University of Manchester. His current research is focused on developing 2D nano-corona technology for the analysis of the cancer cell secretome and biomarker discovery.