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Dr Christian Eseigbe Imafidon (2021)

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picture of Dr Christian Eseigbe Imafidon

Employing institution: Bowen University (Nigeria) 

Host institution: MRC Unit, The Gambia at LSHTM.

Project title: Obesity and Saliva Renal Function Biomarkers: Assessing the Nexus between Saliva Gene Variants, Novel Classification and Prognosis of Obesity-induced Kidney Injury.

Dr Imafidon is a Renal and Applied Physiologist, who completed his PhD programme at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Nigeria. He currently works at Bowen University Iwo, Nigeria, and has a vision to provide novel treatment and management strategies for renal conditions with racial and socio-economic disparities in their incidence and progression.

AREF Fellowship Research Project:

The world-wide prevalence of obesity-induced kidney injury is projected to grow by 40% across the globe in the next decade. An invasive procedure is the conventional method of diagnosing this condition, but it can cause anxiety and discomfort to patients.

Most physiological /pathological values used in clinical practices are obtained from data that are generated from predominantly white and or Caucasian participants, even though there is a significant racial and socio-economic disparity in the incidence and progression of chronic kidney diseases.

Dr Imafidon’s placement at MRCU, The Gambia provided him a clear-cut treatment and management strategies for renal conditions with racial and socio-economic disparities. He gained adequate exposure to bioinformatics and GWAS which provided him knowledge shift in research approaches, acquired transferable skillset for health worker-patient interaction for research purposes and managing research networks and the ability to analyze COVID data as well as library preparation and sequencing using nanopore and illumine platforms. With his supervisors support, Dr Abdul-kareem Sesay, Dr Alfred Ngwa and Dr Davis Nwakanma, Christian also engaged in manuscript development and managed two post-placement in view for publication in Q2 Scopus-indexed journals. 

Dr Imadidon has successfully been appointed as Co-Chair of College Curriculum Review Committee, Chairman of Research Ethics Sub-Committee and the Head of Physiology Department at Bowen University, Nigeria. He gained sufficient leadership, grant writing and manuscript development skills, all of which he is currently transferring to postgraduate students and colleagues in his employing institution.

“Developing a comprehensive and racial-specific database of physiologic values is essential for ensuring better prognosis of health conditions that have racial and socio-economic disparity in their incidence and progression.”