A Washington, DC, USA, based nonprofit organization, Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) Genetic Toxicology Technical Committee (GTTC) has selected Tony Okeke, the NNPC Science Quiz Champion, as a GTTC Professional Development:2023 Award Winner.
HESI has a mission to collaboratively identify and help to resolve global health and environmental challenges through the engagement of scientists from academia, government, industry, clinical practice, research institutes, and NGOs.
As a Winner of the award, Tony will recieve fund and be afforded the opportunity to attend relevant scientific conferences, workshops, training courses, etc to build core competences and transferable skills and or share their research, and be availed with other related opportunity that contributes to professional development. This award also provides Tony the opportunity to join the HESI community to learn about the emerging projects and science at HESI. It is also an open invitation for Tony to attend the 2024 GTTC Annual Meeting to learn about current GTTC projects and network with, and gain insight from, experts in the genetic toxicology field.
Tony was given this award in recognition of his strides in the last four years of his study as a Biomedical Engineering student in Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Perhaps, his interesting profile are better captured by a look at his internships with some institutions in the US. His first internship was with the ivy league, University of Pennsylvania, UPENN. Subsequent internships have been with the multinational Pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Collegeville, PA, USA. Sources at GSK told our reporter that Tony is one of the most
impressive students they have encountered in the past two decades and as an international student from Nigeria pursuing a joint MS/BS degree in Biomedical Engineering with a Concentration in Bioinformatics (MS) and Neuroengineering (BS) respectively with a 4.0 GPA, Tony is well deserving of the GTTC Award as it will provide him with professional development
opportunities that he would, otherwise, not be able to participate in as a student.
 As an intern working in the GSK lab from the Spring of 2022, he had a major impact in the application and advancement of data analysis related
to genomics.
Through his work at GSK, Tony’s enthusiastic engagement with GSK scientists, his bright personality and most importantly, his
scientific curiosity have been remarkable.
Upon joining GSK, as an intern, he quickly jumped into ongoing research studies where he learned a variety of new applications for his skill sets.
Because of Tony’s enthusiasm for research and skills in helping to advance GSK data science, he was invited back for a second internship in the laboratory.
According to our source, “Tony’s enthusiasm continues to this day – he spends his downtime pursuing research and learning about new bioinformatic and analytical skills that could apply to research.
Not surprisingly, Tony has been co-author on several publications to date based on his internships and through his schooling as well as multple abstracts at scientific meetings. This dedication to his laboratory research is unmatched by other students we have had the pleasure of mentoring in the past – and it is even
more impressive when one recognizes that he is an international student from Nigeria, an underdeveloped country, and continues to have a 4.0 GPA while so engaged in research.”
Tony’s research focuses on everaging bioinformatics and computational methods to investigate molecular mechanisms related to identifying and predicting potential safety concerns in the various areas across drug development which includes, but not limited to, genotoxicity, immunotoxicology, cardiovascular toxicology, reproductive toxicology.
Some of his most notable
accomplishments include investigations of biomarkers for immune activation and neuro-injury in acute COVID-19 infections which has contributed to an enhanced understanding of immune responses, organ failure, and the impact of anti-viral treatments in COVID-19 patients.
He has also created novel interactive tools to facilitate the investigation of variations in gene expression across various cancer types. In addition, he has contributed to the development of machine
learning models for predicting gene ontology enrichment in genomic based studies using RNA
sequencing and Affymetrix GeneChip data and developed interactive web-based platforms from
data generated using high-content imaging (cell painting) platforms.
Upon hs recent return to
GSK as an intern, he is, again, becoming integrated into ongoing activities. He is begnning to work with GSK members of the HESI eSTAR Carcinogenomics working
group in the analysis of genomic data sets obtained from RNASeq and Affymetrix platforms
following short term treatment of rats with various gene toxicants to help aid in informing molecular
mechanisms underlying risk factors of carcinogenesis.
What sets Tony apart from other students is that he is an international student from an under
developed country (Nigeria) with a passion for understanding the mechanisms by which biological
responses occur and how genomic data anaysis and the application of new bioinformatic tools
are dependent upon each other to have an impact– this comes across in his inquiring about the
mechanics of different experimental technques and in his participation in laboratory meetings.
“Even more important than the academic and scientific accolades isTony’s leadership. He has
worked diligently and regularly goes beyond what is expected of a traditional student. This is
evidenced by the service he is extending as the Vice President as well as the Project Manager of
the Drexel University Computational Design Group as well as his participation in helping to drive the Drexel
Society of Artificial Inteligence (AI) over the past 2 years.” the source added.
Recall that Tony Okeke at 16 won the coveted prize of the national championship in the 2018 keenly contested NNPC Science Quiz Competition which featured 15,480 science students/participants in Nigeria. Early this year, he led a group of 6 international students in the United States to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) Medical App.
