Man Whose Sister Passed Way From Typhoid Fever 20 Years Ago Gets Inspired To Study Microbiology

A man named Chidozie Ojobor has shared a lengthy post on how his late sister who died of typhoid fever, inspired him to study Microbiology.

Sharing the post on LinkedIn, he wrote:

Three days ago, I successfully defended my Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto, Canada. I worked on a project that I had strong personal connection to and everyday, for six years, my motivation for the work stayed intense and intact irrespective of the outcomes of my experiments. Why was I so drawn to my project?

About 20 years ago when I was barely ten, my sister in Nigeria passed away from typhoid fever because she was infected with drug-resistant bacteria that eventually took her life.

That experience led me to studying Microbiology in the University. During my doctoral program, I went on to engineer bacterial-killing entities called pyocins, to target and kill disease-causing bacterial strains, including those resistant to antibiotic treatment. Today, I feel great about how far I have come. So Ginika, my dear sister, this is for you!

On this note, I want to thank every single person that has contributed to my success so far. The journey continues but I must pause to acknowledge you all.

A big thank you to my teachers from the Department of Microbiology, University of Nigeria, where my passion for science was sealed. Special thanks to my Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Alan Davidson, who was genuinely interested in my success and gave me all the support that I needed. To all my lab mates and friends from grad school, thank you for making late night experiments fun.

Now, I am moving on to solving another important problem. I have cofounded a health-tech startup with Linta Mustafa and we are super-excited about it. Currently we are in New York City for 3 months building the company and have been recently backed by a super-reputable accelerator (I will be sharing details about this shortly).

Source: Chidozie Ojobor,|LinkedIn

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com