Dr. Joel Ojogbane Onoja has been in the world of natural product research for at least nine years (9) years. He had his Masters of Science (M.Sc.) Degree and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree in Pharmacognosy/Natural product chemistry in the year 2015 and 2021, respectively from the prestigious University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He started his career in 2015 as a Research Associate (Phytochemistry Unit) and Production Manager at the International Centre for Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (InterCEDD Limited), Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria for two years where he conduct research, develop and produce drugs of natural origin. He is a Faculty member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria and a seasoned lecturer and researcher of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Environmental Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) since 2018 with excellent teaching and track record of achieving exceptional results in academic publications and grant winning. Dr. Onoja had his postgraduate training at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan under the sponsorship of The World Academy of Science (TWAS) in 2017. Dr Onoja is also a Research Fellow of the Institute of Drug, Herbal Medicine and Excipient Research and Development, University of Nigeria, Nsukka since 2021 and currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Center for Drug Discovery, University of Buea, Cameroon (UB-CeDD). His Postdoctoral research is on searching for compounds from African medicinal plants for the treatment of range of diseases including Tuberculosis (TB), neglected tropical diseases (NTD’s), viral diseases and malaria under the African-derived Natural Products Box project (AdNPB), jointly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) and LifeArc (UK) in partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV, Switzerland). His research interest is focused on assessing natural products (medicinal plants, fungi, marine organism, bacteria) for specific biological activity and identifying active compounds in these natural products which may be used directly as drugs or form templates for drug discovery. Dr Onoja have expertise in applications of different chromatographic techniques such as Recycling Preparative High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Column chromatography, Thin Layer Chromatography, Spectroscopic techniques and Computer Aided Drug Design which are imperative to drug discovery processes. According to Dr. Onoja’s Google Scholar profile, he has published number of articles and have deserved 103 citations so far, and this number is growing exponentially. This attention is a result of his contributions to advance the field of natural product drug discovery. Dr. Onoja has become a highly influential member of his field. He is a member of several scientific bodies which includes; Member, Nigerian Society of Pharmacognosy (NSP), Member of West Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientist (WANNPRES), Member, Society for Medicinal Plants and Economic Development (SOMPED), South Africa, Member, Asian Network of Research on Anti-diabetic Plants (ANRAP), Member, International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST), Associate member, American Association for Cancer Research, Member, Phytochemical  Society of Europe (PSE), Member, AfriScience Network, Member African Phytomedicine Scientific Society (APSS). Dr Onoja has attended over thirty (30) International and local scientific conferences. Dr. Onoja enjoys going for adventure trip to botanical gardens and forest in search for medicine to alleviate the health challenges of man.

Other Team Members:

1. Clovis S. Metuge (M.Sc. Student)

2. Ndi Ariane Tirr (Ph.D. Student)

3. Chantal Emade Nkwelle (Ph.D. Student)

4. Fritz Mukow Nsanyi (Ph.D. Student)

Dr. Maloba M. M. Lobe is trained in the University of Buea. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2021 under the supervision of Emeritus Professor Simon M. N. Efange. Her Ph.D. thesis work was outstanding and led to two original peer-reviewed journal articles and two patent applications. After a temporal period as a research scientist at the Cameroon Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation (MINRESI) in Yaoundé, she was recruited as an Assistant Lecturer of Chemistry in the same Department of Chemistry, where she was trained. She has several awards, including the Adolphe Monkedje Fellowship and the African-German Network of Excellence in Science (AGNES) PAWS Postdoctoral Research Grant awarded to young female scientists from Sub-Saharan Africa who have distinguished themselves during their Ph.D. studies. This award is partly sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).

Her group is in charge of the synthesis of analogues suggested by natural products and computational chemistry teams, beginning from the scaffolds derived from nature.

Other Team Members:

1. Vanessa Asoh Shu (M.Sc. Student)

2. Solange A. Tanyi (Ph.D. Student)

3. Albert Ehinak Enama (Ph.D. Student)

Dr. Conrad V. Simoben is trained in the University of Buea and at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). After a B.Sc. in Chemistry (with a minor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry) from the University of Buea, he carried out his M.Sc. thesis project on the computational investigation of the potential of anticancer compounds from Africa flora under the guidance and mentorship of Fidele Ntie-Kang (obtained in 2015). He immediately obtained a full scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) to pursue a Ph.D. in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Sippl. He defended a cumulative Ph.D. thesis in 2021 with suma cum laude (the highest distinction possible) after investigating natural products from African medicinal plants and other synthetic compounds that can inhibit histone deacetylases. During his Ph.D. studies, he received an academic distinction from his university for his outstanding results. Since then, he has been applying computational methodologies to identify lead compounds for diverse therapeutic purposes, including antiviral targets within the ongoing projects at UB-CeDD. He has currently published more than 25 journal articles and book chapters. He belongs to several networks, including the DAAD Alumni network and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

His team is in charge of the in silico (virtual) screening platforms at UB-CeDD and participate in suggesting natural products and their computationally designed analogues, beginning from the scaffolds derived from nature or synthesised scaffolds.

Other Team Members:

1. Cyprian Meh Dih (M.Sc. Student)

2. Cyril T. Namba-Nzanguim (M.Sc. Student)

3. Simeon Akame (Data Curator)

4. Jude Y. Betow (Ph.D. Student)