Rob Onyenwoke received his Ph.D. in microbiology and microbial biochemistry and physiology from the University of GA (Athens, GA). From there, he was awarded the Marilyn Yarbrough Dissertation/Teaching Fellowship at Kenyon College (Gambier, OH). He was then awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of NC-Chapel Hill, where he investigated unique drug targets involved in calcium physiology.
Currently, he is a research associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at NC Central University and a principal investigator within the Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE).
His academic research includes (1) developing pharmaceutical strategies to target and manipulate ER-resident Ca2+ stores and AMPK function through drug discovery and the identification and characterization of downstream targets/effectors and (2) questioning mechanisms of pulmonary/lung inflammatory responses, especially with regard to tobacco product use, and seeking to develop novel therapeutic interventions based upon unique biomarkers of pulmonary distress.