Cell Biologist, Tobiloba Oni Is Gaining Global Recognition for his Research on Cancer
Tobiloba Oni, a Nigerian Cell Biologist joins the list of Nigerians putting Africa on a global map as he becomes a Fellow of the prestigious Whitehead Institute, United States on the 30th of November 2020. Additionally, he will launch his independent research laboratory in February 2021.
As a fellow of Whitehead, Tobiloba brings in world-class creativity and technical insights to research on ways that would enable the immune system to effectively recognize and destroy malignant cells in the micro tumour environment. He joins a team of dynamic, early-career investigators to uncover mechanisms for the poor anti-tumour immune response to pancreatic cancer.
Tobiloba obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2020 from Stony Brook University, where he won the institution’s Scholar in Biomedical Science award. He completed his graduate research with David Tuveson, the Director of Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (CSHL) Cancer Centre. Tobiloba’s graduate research at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory opened a new path that aided the understanding, detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer. Tobiloba is actively in search of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer.
His graduate work focused on developing tools that would detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage. He also focused on identifying the mechanism that drives malignant progression, which can become targets for new therapeutics. At CSHL, he helped to develop one of the first mouse and human organoid models of pancreatic cancer and employed the models in identifying tumour-specific metabolic vulnerabilities and resistance pathways. He further generated antibodies to abnormal proteins on the cell surface of tumour cells, which are now used to develop a more effective method for detecting the disease.
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In his research, he employs a high amount of phage display screens to tackle an unmet need in Pancreatic Cancer, which is the lack of diagnostic biomarkers. He pans phage libraries containing billions of synthetic antibodies on patient-derived organoids in order to discover the specific antibodies that will effectively detect the presence of early-stage pancreatic cancer.
Tobiloba is set to pursue opportunities that would inspire and mentor the next generation of scientists from diverse background to tackle the most challenging biological issues.
Whitehead Institute is a globally recognized non-profit scientific institution focused on promoting human health through basic biomedical research.