Taofeek Owonikoko

American physician and professor
Scientific careerInstitutionsEmory University
Johns Hopkins UniversityThesisGenetische Heterogenität in Adenokarzinomen des Ösophagus (2000)

Taofeek Kunle Owonikoko is an American physician who is Professor and Vice-Chair for Faculty Development, Department of Haematology and Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute. His research considers small cell lung cancer. He was a 2019 Emory University Woodruff Leadership Academy Fellow.

Early life and education

Owonikoko is from Nigeria. He attended the Obafemi Awolowo University, where he specialised in medicine.[citation needed] Owonikoko completed his residency at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. In 1998 he was awarded a German research fellowship to join Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.[citation needed] Whilst in Germany Owonikoko earned a doctoral degree in anatomical pathology.[1]

Research and career

In 2001 Owonikoko joined Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow, where he worked in molecular imaging.[2] Owonikoko was designated as a Distinguished Cancer Scholar in the Georgia Cancer Coalition in 2008. That year he joined Emory University as an Associate Professor.[3]

He specialises in small cell lung cancer.[citation needed] He leads clinical trials into novel immunotherapy drugs, which can be used to treat aggressive and recurrent cancers.[4] He has studied the efficacy of talazoparib as a treatment for small cell lung cancer patients with homologous recombination repair deficiency.[5]

Owonikoko has called for more people of color to be involved with clinical cancer trials.[6] In particular, Black patients are below 4% of patients involved in clinical trials for lung cancer.[6] He believes that this underrepresentation perpetuates healthcare outcome inequality.[6]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

  • Owonikoko, Taofeek K.; Ragin, Camille C.; Belani, Chandra P.; Oton, Ana B.; Gooding, William E.; Taioli, Emanuela; Ramalingam, Suresh S. (2007-12-10). "Lung Cancer in Elderly Patients: An Analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Database". Journal of Clinical Oncology. 25 (35): 5570–5577. doi:10.1200/JCO.2007.12.5435. ISSN 0732-183X. PMID 18065729.
  • Ramalingam, Suresh S.; Owonikoko, Taofeek K.; Khuri, Fadlo R. (2011-03-08). "Lung cancer: New biological insights and recent therapeutic advances". CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 61 (2): 91–112. doi:10.3322/caac.20102. PMID 21303969. S2CID 12655853.
  • Owonikoko, Taofeek Kunle; Hussain, Arif; Stadler, Walter Michael; Smith, David C.; Kluger, Harriet; Molina, Ana M.; Gulati, Parul; Shah, Aadhar; Ahlers, Christoph Matthias; Cardarelli, Pina M.; Cohen, Lewis J. (2016). "First-in-human multicenter phase I study of BMS-936561 (MDX-1203), an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CD70". Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. 77 (1): 155–162. doi:10.1007/s00280-015-2909-2. ISSN 0344-5704. PMID 26576779. S2CID 20799503.

References

  1. ^ Owonikoko, Taofeek Kunle (2000). Genetische Heterogenität in Adenokarzinomen des Ösophagus (Barrettkarzinom) (Thesis). Düsseldorf. OCLC 1106722001.
  2. ^ "Taofeek Owonikoko, MD, PhD, MSCR". winshipcancer.emory.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  3. ^ "PRIME® Faculty Biography - Taofeek Owonikoko, MD, PhD, MSCR". primeinc.org. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  4. ^ Worbel, Sylvia (2018). "Outpacing Cancer". Emory University.
  5. ^ "You have been blocked". www.cancernetwork.com. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  6. ^ a b c Nazha, Bassel; Mishra, Manoj; Pentz, Rebecca; Owonikoko, Taofeek K. (2019-05-01). "Enrollment of Racial Minorities in Clinical Trials: Old Problem Assumes New Urgency in the Age of Immunotherapy". American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book. 39 (39): 3–10. doi:10.1200/EDBK_100021. ISSN 1548-8748. PMID 31099618. S2CID 157059400.
  7. ^ Taofeek Kunle Owonikoko. OCLC 5974025329.
  8. ^ "Owonikoko receives NCI Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award". news.emory.edu. 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  9. ^ "2019 Fellows". whsc.emory.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-25.