Dr. Odinachi Ogbonna, a dedicated SLTmicrobiologist and biotechnologist, is using science to address some of Nigeria’s most pressing healthcare and development challenges. With over a decade of experience, she combines laboratory diagnostics, microbiology, and biotechnology to improve healthcare outcomes, industrial processes, and agricultural practices. In this exclusive Science & Tech Connect interview, she highlights the growing threat of antibiotic resistance in Nigeria, where thousands die annually from drug-resistant infections. Through her research on Acinetobacter baumannii, Dr. Ogbonna and her team have identified effective treatment options and traced infection patterns, contributing both to patient care in Nigerian hospitals and to global antimicrobial resistance surveillance efforts.
Beyond the laboratory, Dr. Ogbonna is deeply committed to science education and community empowerment. She believes grassroots science education is essential for solving local problems, enabling communities to apply practical scientific knowledge to challenges such as contaminated water, crop spoilage, and public health concerns. By promoting science in local languages and partnering with community organizations, she ensures scientific innovations reach underserved populations. Looking ahead, she is optimistic about the role of artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and locally driven biotechnology in transforming Nigerian science. She also encourages young scientists, especially women, to embrace mentorship, resilience, and curiosity, emphasizing that every failed experiment is a step toward discovery and innovation.
Scie& Tech : As a Microbiologist (Science Laboratory Technologists )and Biotechnologist with over 10 years of experience, what inspired your passion for science and technology, and how has this journey shaped your career?
Thank you Science and Tech connect for the privilege to partner with your organization on this interview.
My name is Dr Odinachi Ogbonna. A Reseacher, an Educator and a Laboratory Scientist.
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: What inspired my passion for Science and Technology as a Microbiologist and a Biotechnologist and how the journey has shaped my life.
Ans. As a Medical Microbiologist and a Biotechnologist, sitting right in the middle point of the invisible world where you can actually run in its tiny system, dealing with the organisms you can’t see with the naked eyes, this can take you right to the hospital ward, making a wired culture plate that makes sense, and watching PCR bands aligning correctly in Biotechnology laboratory wires me greatly, This helps to trace a problem down to it mechanism. and the real world lights me up to be wired both practically and intellectually to make the world a better place through a sound diagnostic system, a cleaner fermentation process, which change what’s possible for a patience, a farmer and even in the industry.
HOW THE JOURNEY SHAPED MY LIFE.
- As an experienced medical microbiologist/ biotechnologist I have understood that having a negative result in the Laboratory is path of the game, as this would help us to carry out the process again and be sure of your results. I have also learnt that fastness is not all we need for a better result, but carefulness and diligence.
- Getting a better result required partnership with other interdisciplinary options. As a microbiologist may need a statistician to interpret an aspect of a result or chemist in some of the analysis.
Scie &Tech: Your research has focused extensively on antibiotic-resistant bacteria and microbial biotechnology. Why is this area of research important to Nigeria and the global scientific community?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: Why my area of research on antibiotics resistance bacteria and microbial biotechnology is important to Nigeria and global scientific community.
For Nigeria:
Antimicrobial resistance is a great burden to especially health care in Nigeria due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and weak surveillance. Research on antimicrobial resistance helps reduce treatment failures for different infections which is the lead cause for high rate of death.
For Global Scientific Community
New resistance strains and resistance genes from Nigeria can spread globally through travel trade. My work research work has contributed data and solutions that fit into drug discovery pipeline and global surveillance. Microbial biotech is one of the few options that has really tackled antimicrobial resistance (AMR), pollution and industrial development.
My work bridges a great gap, taking Nigeria’s microbial diversity and health challenges and taking them into tools that work locally and contribute globally.
Sci &Tech Connect: You have contributed significantly to teaching and mentoring undergraduate and professional students in Biotechnology and Medical Microbiology. What role do you believe education plays in advancing science and technology at the grassroots level?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: The Role I believe Education plays in advancing science and technology at the grass root level, haven’t contributed significantly to teaching mentoring undergraduates and professional students.
Education at the grassroot level is an amplifier of science and technology, especially in medical microbiology and Biotechnology. The understanding of culturing, PCR, biosafety and sterilization at practical level helps to apply them in solving local problems like water contamination in various town and villages, antibiotics resistance patterns in nearby clinics and post harvest spoilage in agriculture.
Grassroots science and advancement die fast when local communities don’t understand some techniques on vaccines and different infections. Education gives people the gateway to ask questions, in medical fields that impact public health outcomes.
Grassroot education is how you convert “Science existing somewhere else” into “we can do science here with what we have”.
Scie &Tech Connect: As a professional member of the Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT), what challenges and opportunities have you encountered in promoting professional scientific training in Nigeria?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: As a professional Member of Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT)., what challenges have you encountered in promoting the profession?
NISLT is a statutory body that is mandated to license and regulate Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) practice in Nigeria. Major challenges include:
SLT lecturers in different Universities and Polytechnique’s, about 80% of SLT lecturers are not even registered members of NISLT, hence giving chances to quackeries training our student, giving inadequate teaching especially on Laboratory Techniques.
Facing different regulatory clashes from NBTE trying to hijack the running of degree programs without proper alignment with NISLT.
MLS on the other hand claiming that graduates of SLT has no right into medical laboratory.
Sci &Tech Connect:Your recent publication on Acinetobacter baumanni and antibiotics resistance have attracted academic attention. What major finding from your research do you believe can improve health care delivery in Nigeria?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: One of the highest major findings in my recent publication was the ability to characterize Acenetobacter baumanni isolated from clinical samples from Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki and Matter Misericodia Hospital all in Ebonyi State down to its phylogenetic origin. Characterizing pathogenic isolates down to its phylogenetic origin gives speed in accessing or tracing down the root the causes of different infection.
Meropenem, imipenem and polymycin B was detected as the major drug of choice for the treatment infection caused by A. baumanni.
Patients within the age of 40-49 years were majorly infected and male patients were more predisposed to female by A. baumanni pathogens.
. Sci& Tech Connect: Science and technology are often seen as urban central fields. In your openion, how can organization and institution effectively take science and technology education to rural communities and grassroot population
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: Taking science and technology education to rural communities and grassroots will have to mean leaving bringing science to the people to bringing people to science. Universities, research laboratories, funding and other federal parastatals are often built in the urban area, so people travel to the urban to access technology, but when this technological system is taking down the rural areas, everyone down to grassroots can partake.
So here are a few methods to follow:
- Start solving local problem, not local tech. ask questions about their challenges, what waste their time, too much cost or fails in harvest season. Take the tech solution to their local communities
- Use local languages, communities would express challenges better in their local language.
- Partner with existing grassroots structure , they already have trust built with communities.
Sci& Tech Connect: Having attended several workshops on artificial intelligence, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology. How do you see emerging technologies transforming scientific research and laboratory practice in Nigeria?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: Artificial intelligence is moving from theory to workflow. AI is not supposed to be a replacement for people, however it is been pushed as an accelerator for laboratory work like Diagnostics, pathology, and laboratory informatics.
Bioinformatics closes data gap. Nigeria’s health and agriculture research is bottled neck in analyzing data in health innovation, training and research output.
In biotechnology, especially in Agricultural biotech, Nigeria-specific risk assessment frameworks for GM crops are being developed using using molecular-ecological methods. This gives researchers local data instead of only relying on forieng studies.
Sci&Tech Connect: What advice would you give to young girls and aspiring scientists who wants to build successful carriers in science, technology and research?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: Talking to young girls and aspiring scientists, first mentorship matters more than prestige. Find people who are 2-3 steps ahead of you in your area of specialty you want to grow, not famous people. A PhD student or a researcher who has done more work will give you more usefull advice than a noble known laureate.
Learn to ask specific questions on how they picked up their thesis topic, what to do in lab etc.
Learn to communicate like a scientist and build tolerance for being wrong publicly.
Sci&Tech Connect: Collaboration is important in scientific advancement. How can government, educational institutions and private organizations work together to strengthen science and technology development in Nigeria.
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: In collaboration government can not do everything, neither can educational or private institution, so to this government should
- Set an enabling environment through policy and funding, incentives, infrastructure and public and private partnerships.
- Producing of relevant talent and research through different institutions. This can be achieved through exchange and partnership programme, Demand driven curricula and open labs and equipment sharing.
Sci &Tech Connect: Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of science and technology in Nigeria, especially in empowering young people and improving community at the grassroot level?
Dr (Mrs) Ogbona Odinanchi: Science and Technology is the backbone of Research, healthcare, food safety, industry and innovation. For national development in research and healthcare, science and technology must be involved, because there’s no country that can achieve technological advancement without functional laboratories and qualified laboratory professionals. My greatest vision is to seeing Nigeria invest in Science and Technology, training more professionals of Science Laboratory Technology and equipping our local laboratories.
Warmest regards to the Science and Tech connect team, Thank you for the privilege.
