About

I am a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science and Human Biology. I am the programme leader for Human Biology and the deputy lead for Healthy Ageing and Mental Wellbeing Research Centre. My research focus is on biomarkers of ageing and I am involved in research supervision.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach on the cell and molecular biology-related modules within the Biomedical Science and Human Biology programmes.

Professional interests

I am interested in teaching and research excellence.

Research interests

I am interested in translational research, focusing on patient benefits and basic science that includes an understanding of disease mechanisms and prognosis with the potential for the discovery and development of biomarkers and therapeutic targets in age-related diseases. My previous work includes the use of mass spectrometry to develop protein biomarkers to predict response to therapy in inflammatory arthritis, the development of oxidised phospholipid markers in Alzheimer’s disease and chronic kidney disease, investigation of the effects of lipid peroxidation on mitochondrial function in neuronal cells, the effect of nutrition (specifically antioxidant-rich diet) on oxidative stress and ageing. I have also done some studies on the effects of endoplasmic reticulum shaping proteins on morphoregulation in neuronal cells.

At the moment,  I seek to understand cellular senescence in vitro and vivo to inform future strategies for clearing senescence as well as investigate novel biomarkers of inflammaging; in order to contribute to the promotion of healthy ageing and also the management of the economic impact of the growing ageing population. I use cell/molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Lipidomics, Proteomics, and mitochondria Biology techniques in my research.

Membership of professional bodies

• BLAST (Building Links in Ageing Science and Translation) Network
• Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge 
• FHEA – Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• SFRR-E – Society for Free Radical Research- Europe
• Biochemical Society
• ARUK Midland network

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Biochemistry - University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria (2006)
• MSc Biomedical Diagnostics - Dublin City University, Ireland (2009)
• PGCert Teaching in Higher Education - University College Dublin Ireland (2011)
• PhD Translational Medicine - University College Dublin Ireland (2013)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2017)

Recent conferences

• BLAST (Building Links in Ageing Science and Translation) Summer School, Queen's University Belfast (July 3-6, 2023)
• Biochemical Society Conference, Nottingham UK (April 20-21, 2023)
• International Singapore Lipid Symposium (ISL11) (March 21-23, 2023)
• The Chemistry of Ageing, London UK - Royal Society of Chemistry (Nov 28, 2022)
• BLAST (Building Links in Ageing Science and Translation) Summer School, University of Oxford (Aug 20 -25, 2022)
• Connectome UKDRI conference, Birmingham, UK (Oct 3-4, 2019)
• Connectome UKDRI conference, De Vere Reading UK (Sept 27-28, 2018)
• Keystone Symposia on Lipidomics and Bioactive Lipids in Metabolism and Disease meeting, Granlibakken Tahoe in Tahoe City, California, USA (Feb 26- Mar 2, 2017) – Poster/ Award
• Biochemical Society meeting on Lipid Mediators in ageing and Disease, Aston University, Birmingham, UK (Jan 5-6, 2017) - Poster
• Midlands Innovation Flow Cytometry Meeting, University of Nottingham (Jan 11, 2017)
• Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) Meeting, Manchester (8-9 March 2016)
• SFRR-E Conference University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany (Sept 1-4, 2015) - Poster
• Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) Meeting. University of Warwick UK (April 10, 2015)
• 8th Psoriatic Arthritis Genetics in Europe (PAGE) meeting Dublin (April 11-12, 2013) – Oral
• American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Conference Washington (Nov 9-14, 2012) -Poster
• Irish Society of Rheumatology (ISR) Conference Belfast (Sept 20-21, 2012)- Poster (2nd prize award)

Experience in industry

I have experience in the Pharmaceutical industry as a trainee analyst in the quality control department, EMZOR Pharmaceuticals, Lagos, Nigeria during my undergraduate degree program. I have also worked with interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams which include collaborations with Abbott Pharmaceuticals, Rheumatology departments at Amsterdam Medical Centre, Netherlands and St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin Ireland, during my PhD. In addition to these, I collaborated with Macuvison Europe Ltd. UK and Waterford Medical Centre, Ireland during my first postdoctoral training.

International experience

I have engaged in projects with different academic staffs from overseas institutions, including the University of Amsterdam Netherlands, University of Dusseldorf, Germany, University of Porto, Portugal, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University, Ireland. I successfully transferred an HPLC method for carotenoid analysis which I learned from The Biochemistry Department, at the University of Dusseldorf to Aston University in order to investigate the effect of carotenoid supplementation on Alzheimer’s disease and the method was published. I have presented my work at a number of national and international conferences with awards in a couple of; with the latest award obtained at the keystone symposia in California, USA 2017 based on merit. 

In the media

• Medscape News: Psoriatic Arthritis: Biomarkers that may predict drug response https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/831687

Recent publications

• Ademowo OS, Dias IH. Circulating Oxysterols in Alzheimer’s disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Redox Experimental Medicine. Volume 2022: issue 1, pp R116-R126 [Published online ahead of print, 2022 Jul 1]. doi.org/10.1530/rem-22-0009
• Irundika H.K. Dias, Ivana Milic, Christian Heiss, Opeyemi S. Ademowo, Maria Cristina Polidori, Andrew Devitt, and Helen R. Griffiths. Inflammation, Lipid (Per)oxidation, and Redox Regulation [published online ahead of print, 2020 Feb 28]. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2020;10.1089/ars.2020.8022. doi:10.1089/ars.2020.8022
• Ademowo OS, Dias IHK, Diaz-Sanchez L, Sanchez-Aranguren L, Stahl W, Griffiths HR. Partial Mitigation of Oxidized Phospholipid-Mediated Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neuronal Cells by Oxocarotenoids [published online ahead of print, 2020 Jan 20]. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;10.3233/JAD-190923. doi:10.3233/JAD-190923
• Opeyemi Stella Ademowo, Praveen Sharma, Paul Cockwell, Ana Reis, Iain L. Chapple, Helen R. Griffiths, Irundika H.K. Dias. Distribution of plasma oxidised phosphatidylcholines in chronic kidney disease and periodontitis as a co-morbidity, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Volume 146, 2020, Pages 130-138, doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.10.012
• O.S. Ademowo, H.K.I. Dias, C. Pararasa, H.R Griffiths. Nutritional hormesis in a modern environment In: The science of hormesis in health and longevity (Chapter 6) Editors: Suresh I. S. Rattan and Marios Kyriazis. Academic Press, 2019, Pages 75-86, ISBN 9780128142530, doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814253-0.00006-1
• Egea, J., Fabregat, I., Frapart, Y. M., Ghezzi, P.,… Ademowo, O.S., … Daiber, A., “European Contribution to the study of ROS: A Summary of the Findings and Prospects for the Future from the COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS),” Redox Biol., vol. 13, pp. 94–162, Oct. 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2017.05.007
• Ademowo, O.S., Dias, H. K. I., Burton, D. G. A., and Griffiths, H. R., “Lipid (per) oxidation in mitochondria: an emerging target in the ageing process?,” Biogerontology, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 859–879, Dec. 2017 doi.org/10.1007/s10522-017-9710-z
• Ademowo, O.S., Dias H.K.I., Milic, I., Devitt, A., Moran, R., Mulcahy, R., … Griffiths, H. R., “Phospholipid oxidation and carotenoid supplementation in Alzheimer’s disease patients,” Free Radic. Biol. Med., vol. 108, pp. 77–85, Jul. 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.03.008
• Ademowo, O. S., Hernandez, B., Collins, E., Rooney, C., Fearon, U., van Kuijk, A. W., … Pennington, S. R., “Discovery and confirmation of a protein biomarker panel with potential to predict response to biological therapy in psoriatic arthritis.,” Ann. Rheum. Dis., vol. 75, no. 1, pp. 234–41, Jan. 2016. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205417
• L. Staunton, T. Clancy, C. Tonry, O.S. Ademowo, M. Dharsee, B.H. Hernandez, K. Evans, R.W. Watson, A. Parnell and S.R. Pennington (2014). Protein Quantification by MRM for Biomarker Validation In Quantitative Proteomics Chpt13 pp279-315. Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry. Claire Eyers and Simon Gaskell (Ed.). ISBN:978-1-84973-808-8
• Ademowo OS, Staunton L, FitzGerald O, Pennington SR.(2013) Biomarkers of Inflammatory Arthritis and Proteomics. In: Spaska Angelova Stanilova, ed. Genes and Autoimmunity- Intracellular Signalling and Microbiome Contribution. INTECH 2013 pp237–67. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54218