University of Ibadan, University College Hospital, Nigeria

University of Ibadan, University College HospitalUniversity of Ibadan, University College Hospital, Nigeria is located in the Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The University began in 1948 with 104 students and has grown to a full-fledged university with a drive for excellence in postgraduate and undergraduate studies. The University College Hospital (UCH), is the country’s national leader in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. It is the premier medical school in Nigeria and has graduated one quarter of all medical doctors in the country. In addition to undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs, in the College of Medicine of the University of Ibadan, the teaching hospital also provides facilities for Post-graduate Residency Programs in various specialties. The UCH is one of the USG PEPFAR implementing institutions in Nigeria, partnering with the Harvard Chan. It has a strong HIV research program dating back to the establishment of the Harvard and Northwestern University AIDS International Training and Research Programs (AITRP) in 2000 and 2008 respectively. Active research includes ongoing NINDS/NIH-funded collaboration on neurological complications of HIV/AIDS.


Site Director

Professor Adesola Ogunniyi, Professor of Medicine, University of Ibadan
aogunniyi@comui.edu.ng

Professor Ogunniyi is a Clinician, Neurologist, Neuroepidemiologist, and Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. He has been a faculty member for two decades and involved with dementia research for three decades. As the pioneer Chairman of the College of Medicine Research and Innovation Management Unit (CRIM), Prof. Ogunniyi supervises grant management and oversees research activities in the College. He previously served as the Director, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training (IAMRAT) at the College of Medicine between 2011 and 2014. His background training was in Internal Medicine and Neurology with post-residency fellowship in Neuroepidemiology at the National Institutes of Health, USA utilizing a WHO/FIC/NINCDS award between January 1986 and April 1987. He was an investigator in the cross-cultural study of dementia in community-dwelling African Americans and Yoruba which involved collaboration between researchers at the Indiana School of Medicine, Indianapolis and the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. The study generated data on the epidemiology of dementia and focused on interaction between genes and environmental factors in determining disease phenotypes. The study was funded for two decades by the National Institute of Aging, USA and involved genome wide association analysis for novel genes. His research group developed the Community Screening Instrument for dementia that is used worldwide for cognitive assessment in disparate populations.


Mentors

Dr. Rufus Akinyemi, Senior Research Fellow/Consultant Neurologist
rufusakinyemi@yahoo.com

Dr. Akinyemi is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Genomics and Precision Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan; Consultant Neurologist at the Department of Medicine, University College Hospital; and Senior Research Fellow, Neuroscience & Ageing Unit, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has given over 60 international scientific presentations and >100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Akinyemi’s work focuses on the public perception of stroke. He has been involved in international collaborative studies on dementia and stroke while working on projects which include the INTERSTROKE Study and GACD THRIVES Study (site investigator); project leader and co-principal investigator of the COGFAST–Nigeria Study; PI (Genomics and Biorepository) of the SIREN Study; PI of the IBADAN Brain Bank Project and recently, PI for the African Neurobiobank for Precision Stroke Medicine (ELSI) study.

Dr. Okechukwu Ogah, Senior Lecturer in Cardiology, University of Ibadan
osogah56156@gmail.com

Dr. Ogah is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at the Department of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Consultant Physician/Cardiologist in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. He is also a fellow of the West African College of Physicians, Nigerian Cardiac Society, European Cardiac Society and American College of Cardiology. Dr. Ogah’s professional goal is to be a leader in the care of persons with cardiovascular diseases as well as a champion in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria through the conduct of regular national registries and surveys, as well as efficient and effective health education and health promotion initiatives. His recent research interests are in the areas of population surveys on cardiovascular risk factors, national heart disease registries, continental heart failure and other disease registries such as pericarditis, rheumatic heart disease, pulmonary hypertension and systemic hypertension.

Professor Mayowa Owolabi, Professor of Neurology and Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine
mayowaowolabi@yahoo.com; mayowaowolabi@gmail.com

Professor Owolabi is Professor of Neurology, Dean Faculty of Clinical Sciences; pioneer director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria is a scholar and entrepreneur with a stroke phenotyping software patent. He has more than 100 international scientific presentations and more than 280 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Owolabi is a recognized global leader in science covering neurology, cardiovascular diseases, neuro-rehabilitation, and community-based genomic epidemiology of stroke in Africa. He led the largest stroke study in Africa titled Stroke Investigative Research & Educational Network (SIREN), a U54HG007479 Collaborative Center Research Grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA under the H3Africa initiative. Currently, Prof. Owolabi is the Principal Investigator of the Systematic Investigation of Blacks with Stroke using Genomics (SIBS Genomics) R01NS107900 and African Rigorous Innovative Stroke Epidemiological Surveillance (ARISES) 1R01NS115944. He is also the Recipient Country Partner for the GCRF-COVID-19 Study. He is the pioneer Chair, H3Africa-CVD WG (with >55 000 subjects); pioneer Regional Vice-President, World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (Africa); Co-Chair, Joint Publication Committee-Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Board of Directors, World Stroke Organization; member GBD group, WSO; Lead Co-Chair, WHO- Lancet Commission on stroke in developing countries and World Hypertension League Sub-Sahara Regional Office Director (2019-2021). He is Associate Editor of BMC Neurology and on the editorial board of many high impact journals.