TETFund NRF Grants YABATECH Researchers N34m for Prostate Cancer Treatment 

Funmi Ogundare 

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) National Research Fund (NRF) has awarded a N34 million grant to the Yaba College of Technology research team to treat cancer.

The grant aims to enable researchers to develop an artificial intelligence-based precision medicine solution for prostate cancer treatment that can potentially improve outcomes significantly for prostate cancer patients in Nigeria and the world.

The grant is meant to develop a technique that uses AI to predict optimal drug combinations for prostate cancer patients based on analyses of biopsy tissue samples. 

Experts in Computer Engineering, Medical Biochemistry, Oncology, Pathology, Zoology, Pharmacognosy and Ethnopharmacy, Toxicology, and Pharmacology are partnering with the college researchers. They will have access to biopsy samples from consenting prostate cancer patients in Nigeria, which has one of the highest prostate cancer rates in the world. 

The Principal Investigator, Mrs. Aishat Amolegbe of the Department of Biological Science, YABATECH, and co-researchers from YABATECH, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and University of Lagos, led the researchers.

The Rector, Dr Ibraheem Abdul, expressed excitement about the feat while pledging the college’s total support to the team on the innovative work to the desired end.

He congratulated the team members: Mrs Oluwatosin Amolegbe, Dr Mustapha Imam, Dr Funmilayo Doherty, Dr Ibrahim Malami, Dr Idowu Aneyo, Adebayo Adebari, and Dr Waidi Abiodun Ashiru on the well-deserved grant.