Dr. Oluwafemi G. Oluwole is a Research Fellow and Academic Instructor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a member of the G2MC Young Investigator Subcommittee. He works with a community of medical scientists interested in genomic medicine, while providing expertise in molecular genetics and pharmacology.

“I am interested in the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, and treatment aspects of medicine. I have had a keen interest in biology and chemistry from my high school days.”

Dr. Oluwole excelled in physiology and pharmacology before shifting his focus to genomic medicine at the postgraduate level, noting he hopes to “still sustain this passion in my career to improve knowledge or possibly make innovations.”

Dr. Oluwole has already amassed accomplishments in his transition from student to early career scientist, this includes recognition by the National Research Foundation as a Y-Rated Researcher. He’s also made notable contributions with his research into the neurogenetics of Parkinson’s Disease.

“The study was the first to implement a targeted next-generation sequencing technique to discover unique pathogenic variants,” he said. “My recent success in identifying novel mutation in human-mouse orthologs hearing impairment gene i.e., the MCPH1 gene. The mutation has been cataloged and recognized on the dBSNP database. It means that this mutation could be considered in molecular diagnostics in the future.”

Outside of work, Dr. Oluwole is a keen hiker, traveler and music fan. As his career in genomics progresses, Dr. Oluwole hopes to see progress in the “efforts still needed to develop both effective education and practice strategies to enable medical scientists and primary health care practitioners to integrate genomic medicine into primary care.”