Prior to joining WPI, Dr. Obayemi was a Lecturer and Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. While at Princeton, John engaged in cutting edge research and taught an undergraduate/graduate course: bioengineering and medical devices. His research includes drug development, targeted therapies, biomedical devices, and cancer detection and treatment using nanoparticles. It focuses on the development of engineered theranostic nanoparticles/drug clusters/medical devices as well as tissue engineered structures for specific targeting and controlled localized treatment of cancer. John received a master's and doctorate degree funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) Scholarship Research Program at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in 2011 and 2015, respectively. During his graduate program at AUST, he was a visiting graduate student at Princeton University and Rutgers University in 2012 and 2013, respectively. During this period, John's PhD dissertation was supervised by a Princeton Professor and was titled “Nano- and Micro-particles for the Detection and Treatment of Cancer”.
Dr. Obayemi has coauthored over 70 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and holds 2 provisional US patents. Before joining the Biomedical Engineering Department on a long term, Dr. Obayemi while serving as an Assistant Research Professor, has served as an Adjunct Teaching Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Assistant Teaching Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department. John’s work has evolved from the development of functionalized nanoparticles that are being conjugated with molecular recognition units (MRU) for specific targeting and treatment of breast and prostate cancer cells/tissues. His current research focused on the use of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches in the development of novel engineered nano- and micro-particles in addition to tissue engineered structures for disease detection and treatment.
These current interests are driven by his research skills that include fundamental understanding of interfacial strength and micro, and nano mechanical properties of biological and biomedical materials, biomechanics of cancer and normal breast cells, functionalization of nanoparticles for specific targeting and treatment of diseases, drug delivery from implantable engineered structures/devices. John is a modest, creative researcher and an outstanding teacher who intends to continuously build a career in research, innovation, and teaching in ways that nurture and effectively inspire the next generation diverse group of young people to solving societal problems using creative applications of interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary scientific and engineering principles.
