Chinedum Peace Babalola

Chinedum Peace Babalola (née Anyabuike) , is a Nigerian Professor of Pharmaceutical chemistry and Pharmacokinetics. She is the first female Professor of Pharmacy in the University of Ibadan, FAS and FAAS and the second female Nigerian FAAS. She is the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Chrisland University, Nigeria.
Background.
Education.
Chinedum obtained a Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm.) degree in 1983, Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1987 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Pharmacokinetics option) in 1997 from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. She won the World Bank/NUC scholarship for staff training and completed her pre-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia between 1994 and 1995.
In 2012, Chinedum obtained a postgraduate Diploma in Industrial Pharmacy Advanced training (IPAT) jointly issued by Kilimanjaro School of Pharmacy, Tanzania and Purdue University, USA. She earned a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 2019.
Career.
Babalola started her academic career as a Junior Trainee/ Graduate Assistant in the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1985. In 1994, she moved to the University of British Columbia to complete a pre-doctoral fellowship. She rose to Lecturer I in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Obafemi Awolowo University before joining the University of Ibadan as a Senior Lecturer in 1998. Babalola became the University of Ibadan's first female Professor of Pharmacy in October 2006.
Prof Babalola is a seasoned university administrator. Prior to her appointment as the Vice Chancellor of Chrisland University, she served as the first female Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Ibadan (2013-2017), and as an adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Olabisi Onabanjo University. She was a two-term Director of General Studies (2005 - 2010) University of Ibadan. She is the first pharmacist to be appointed as a specialist adviser and consultant in a Nigerian hospital – University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
Research Interest and career.
Prof, Babalola's research has been focused on ethics of human research, pharmacogenetics, clinical trials, drug interaction PK/PD, and non-communicable disease (Sickle Cell Disease and Cancer). She developed a novel High-performance liquid chromatography method for the analysis of quinine in biometrics. This novel method quinine analysis led to the elucidation of the pharmacokinetics of quinine in Africans and formed the basis of dose optimization in malaria patents. Her feasibility studies on drug interactions and metabolism suggest a decrease in bioavailability and bacterial activity of certain antibiotics when combined with some anti-malaria drugs. She is one of the scientists that reported the first pharmacogenetic study in healthy and sickle cell patients in Nigerians with proguanil as a probe. The report suggested that some Nigerians are carriers of mutant CYP2C19 genes and poor drug metabolizers.
From 2002 till date, she has been an adjunct Researcher at the Institute of Advanced Medical Research and Training (IAMRAT) under Genetic & Bioethics Research Unit; College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. A unit she also headed from 2010–2012.
Prof Babalola is a recipient of several fellowships, awards and grants. In 2011, she won the MacArthur Foundation Grant worth $950,000 (2012) for Higher Education Higher Education, with which she set up of the Centre for Drug Discovery Development and Production (CDDDP), in the University of Ibadan. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator, on the USAID sponsored USP PQM+ project on promoting Quality of Medicines in LMIC in CDDDP, UI core-flex (a cooperative agreement - $160M Global).
Since she became a professor, she has supervised hundreds of undergraduate students and over 30 postgraduate students (PGD, MSC, M. Phil &PhD). She has over 150 scholarly articles in reputable academic journal as well as books, books chapter, conference abstracts and monograph.
Awards and honours.
African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Award/Prize for Scientific Excellence at African Union Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ($20,000), 2019.
Fellow, Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAPharm), 2015
Fellow, West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (FPCPharam), 2014
Fellow, African Academy of Science (F AAS), 2013
Fellow, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (F PSN), 2012
Fellow, Nigerian Academy of science (FAS), 2011
Member, Institute of Public Analyst of Nigeria (MIPAN)
Registered Pharmacist, Nigeria, 1984.
Selected scholarly articles.
Below are selected peer-reviewed scholarly publications by Professor Chinedum.