Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, Ph.D.

I am pleased to announce that following a national search, Omolola “Lola” Eniola-Adefeso, PhD, has been named dean of the University of Illinois Chicago College of Engineering, effective Oct. 16, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Professor Eniola-Adefeso is a highly respected chemical and biomedical engineer with over 25 years of professional experience. An accomplished scholar, she has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and secured millions of dollars in federal research funding. Eniola-Adefeso has a strong track record of adopting an interdisciplinary approach to her work, and her entrepreneurial successes have resulted in three patent filings, with one patent currently being licensed to a biotech company. She also is highly recognized in the scientific community, as demonstrated by numerous national awards and her current leadership positions as the president of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and director of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She also participates on the National Academies Study Committee: Quadrennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative… Continue reading.

Chemical engineer and STEM advocate Lola Eniola-Adefeso deciphers components of the blood and designs therapeutic particles to help treat disease.

Talking to Lola Eniola-Adefeso is both motivating and inspiring. Born in the United States but having grown up in Nigeria, she realized at a young age that the sciences were her forte.

Years later, Eniola-Adefeso is principal investigator of a chemical engineering lab at the University of Michigan where she strives to understand the relationship between the body’s cellular inflammatory response and blood flow dynamics so that her group can design specialized “particles” to treat a multitude of diseases… Continue reading.

The Biden administration’s decision to elevate the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to a cabinet-level position is a win for science. Eric Lander, confirmed in May by the Senate, is now advising the president on the scientific, engineering, and technological policies of the US government. As Dr. Lander carries out this task, we hope that he keeps in mind what President Biden asked him in a letter in January: “How can we guarantee that the fruits of science and technology are fully shared across America and among all Americans?”

The challenges ahead are formidable. The devastating health and economic impacts of two major crises—climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic—have revealed deep societal fault lines that prevent the United States from drawing on the talents of all Americans to tackle these problems. Thus, there is an urgent need for smart and socially minded policy-making… Continue reading.

A long-ignored white blood cell may be central to the immune system overreaction that is the most common cause of death for COVID-19 patients—and University of Michigan researchers found that rod-shaped particles can take them out of circulation.

The No. 1 cause of death for COVID-19 patients echoes the way the 1918 influenza pandemic killed: their lungs fill with fluid and they essentially drown. This is called acute respiratory distress syndrome. But a new way of drawing immune cells out of the lungs might be able to prevent this outcome. This research is among the essential projects at U-M that have continued through the pandemic uninterrupted… Continue reading.

A surprise finding suggests that an injection of nanoparticles may be able to help fight the immune system when it goes haywire, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The nanoparticles divert immune cells that cause inflammation away from an injury site.

Inflammation is a double-edged sword. When it works, it helps the body heal and fights off infections. But sometimes, the immune system overreacts. An acute lung injury, sustained by inhaling smoke, for instance, can lead to runaway fluid production that essentially drowns a person.

Now, experiments in mice suggest that simple plastic nanoparticles, delivered by IV, may be able to keep a type of immune cell—called a neutrophil—too busy to cause inflammation. Other diseases in which neutrophils cause excessive inflammation include sepsis and the hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis.

“Neutrophils are the first line of defense. They are the most active and the most optimized to mount an inflammatory response,” said Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, a professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at U-M, who led the research… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Eniola-Adefeso was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For outstanding contributions to the understanding of particle transport in blood flow and the field of vascular-targeted drug delivery..