Postdoc Spotlight: New Postdoc Helps Advance Healthcare

Growing up in Nigeria, Lillian Onwuha-Ekpete, Ph.D., never thought she would become a molecular biologist in the United States. And now, she's the first postdoctoral fellow at Florida Atlantic University's Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-Health) researching autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, in hopes of finding new treatment therapies.

"Dr. Onwuha-Ekpete is a tremendous asset to I-Health, based on her multidisciplinary research background and her ability to navigate challenging objectives," said Gregg Fields, Ph.D., executive director of I-Health and supervisor of Onwuha-Ekpete.

Onwuha-Ekpete was born in Nigeria, and raised by a diplomat father, which afforded her the opportunity to travel internationally at a young age to places including the United States as well as parts of Europe. Additionally, most of her high school years were spent at the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. She was always interested in health and science from a young age, and earned her bachelor's degree in Parasitology and Entomology from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State Nigeria. "I've always had an inquisitive mind," she said. "I want to truly understand a situation, and use that understanding to modify it in such a way that I have a unique contribution to the scientific community. That's my guiding philosophy."

Yet, it wasn't until she attended a training workshop with Nwadiuto Esiobu, Ph.D., a professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, that changed the course of her career. Esiobu encouraged her to attend graduate school in the U.S. "It was not on my radar, and if she hadn't told me to go, saying what do you have to lose, I wouldn't have known to try," she said. "I was really happy to have the opportunity to have more exposure to science and to work with other established scientists to learn from them."

"I saw passion, I saw an articulate communicator, I saw an irresistible work ethic, I saw commitment and determination. I saw the bright future and the transformation Lillian represented," Esiobu said. "I knew that my workshops were not enough and that FAU had fantastic professors and resources."

She took the advice. She earned her master's degree in biomedical sciences from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine in 2012. For her thesis research, she investigated the role of a specific gene, FYCO1, in tumor suppression. She then earned her doctorate in integrative biology in 2020, working on the matrix metalloproteinase family of enzymes. In particular, her work highlighted the role of specific members of the family of enzymes, the gelatinases, in the immune response associated with autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis.

For her postdoctoral research, she is continuing to work with Fields to understand more about these enzymes in diseases. But, she'll also be taking on additional roles, such as working with FAU's new organoid project, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, especially on patient-derived pancreatic tissues. "It's the definition of cutting-edge and it creates a framework for personalized medicine," she said. For this project, scientists will be able to take a patient's cancerous tissue, culture the tumor cells and other cells from the tumor environment, grow them as a three-dimensional mini-organ (organoid), test different therapies, and then recommend to a doctor which therapy is best, she added.

I-Health is a focus of FAU, created to advance health through pioneering research and practical applications, with researchers working directly with doctors and patients to advance healthcare. Lillian Onwuha-Ekpete said she is excited "to help build something new, especially in a field you love." Not only is she part of an institute seeking to place FAU at the forefront of research, "but there's the chance to see the immediate effect of that research by working with doctors and patients directly."