About Seun 

Olorunseun Ogunwobi is a translational cancer biologist whose work focuses on molecular mechanisms of progression of solid organ cancers with racial disparities, and on approaches to leverage non-coding RNA biology for potential clinical applications in cancers with established racial disparities. 

Dr. Ogunwobi obtained a medical degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria; a master’s degree in biomedicine from the University of Hull, United Kingdom; a master’s degree in clinical and translational science from the University of Florida, Gainesville; and a PhD in molecular biology from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.

He is the Founding Director of the Hunter College Center for Cancer Health Disparities Research, tenured Full Professor of Biological Sciences at Hunter College of The City University of New York, a member of faculty in the Biology and Biochemistry PhD programs at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is currently appointed as the chair of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at Michigan State University.

His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, New York State, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Dr. Ogunwobi is a Contact Principal Investigator of the Synergistic Partnership for Enhancing Equity in Cancer Health (SPEECH) funded by U54 grants CA221704 and CA221705, Contact Principal Investigator of 3U54CA221704-03S1, and Co-Investigator on R01 grant CA239603 from the National Cancer Institute. An author of over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and two book chapters, Dr. Ogunwobi has been issued five U.S. patents for biotechnology inventions with potential clinical applications in cancer. 

He is Co-Founder of NucleoBio, Inc and UTR Therapeutics (Deerfield XSeed Awardee), start-up biotechnology companies. He is the recipient of the 2022 Hunter College Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Activity, and has been named a 2023-2024 Jefferson Science Fellow by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.