Biology researcher Abiola Olaitan awarded $150,000 from CFI-JELF

By Katie McQuaid
Associate Director, Communications and Marketing

Dr. Abiola Olaitan, who joined the Faculty of Science as a biology professor in 2023, has received $150,000 from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (CFI-JELF). This funding will aid in Olaitan’s work to develop a high-throughput genome-wide screening system to study stress defence mechanisms in Clostridioides difficile, also known as C. difficile.

“This will allow us to investigate important questions about how Clostridioides difficile causes disease and adapts to various chemical stresses, including antibiotic exposure, by examining these processes across its entire genome,” Olaitan says.

Since joining the Faculty of Science, Olaitan has been busy setting up his lab and has continued to break down barriers in his research. This additional funding could help him and his team discover new strategies for fighting C. difficile infections and provide important resources for researchers worldwide.

Olaitan’s work has also garnered attention from organizations like the Gairdner Foundation, and he was named one of the 2023 Gairdner Early Career Investigator Award winners. Part of his award was speaking at the Laureate Lectures last October where he met with many great minds and came away from the day feeling a renewed passion for his work.

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Olaitan’s work, you can visit the Olaitan Lab page for more information. He currently has openings for graduate students interested in joining his team.