Oluwagbemisola “Gbemi” Aderibigbe is not the traditional college student. Her journey began in Nigeria, where she was born, and takes her from Nigeria, to Gadsden, to Florida, and now to Atlanta, Georgia.
Aderibigbe moved from Nigeria to Gadsden when she was just 16 years old. She came alone with a dream — she wanted to pursue a medical degree specializing in pediatric neurology. She enrolled at Gadsden State Community College and according to Aderibigbe, it was her time in Gadsden that encouraged her to keep going.
“Gadsden made me feel like I could do anything,” Aderibigbe said. “It gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel like there wasn’t anything I couldn’t accomplish. I started looking at schools in the United States because doctors and universities are well respected here. I wanted to go to a country where the sky is the limit.”
Aderibigbe completed her pre-engineering degree at Gadsden State in the summer of 2016. She was one of two student commencement speakers chosen by then college president Martha Lavender for the 2016 Summer Commencement Ceremony.
“Gadsden was a second family for me,” she said. “The international staff at Gadsden State then was so amazing and helped me so much. At 16, there was so much I did not know. I had to learn how to cook and do all of these things. I watched a ton of YouTube tutorials on how to do basic things.”
After Gadsden, she headed for Florida to attend the University of South Florida. Once there, she began pursuing a degree in chemical engineering, while also taking numerous pre-med courses.
“My passion was something in the medical field,” she said. “I wanted to go to med school, but felt I needed to do something else first. I wanted to do something else first. Growing up, though, I was always interested in medicine and always interested in helping people.”
The reason she feels drawn to medicine, especially pediatric medicine, is because of a cousin of hers who lives in the U.K.
“I visited my cousin in the U.K. when they were a baby,” Aderibigbe said. “I spent time with them and about a year later my cousin was diagnosed with autism. I began researching autism to understand what they were going through and that is what first drew me to pediatric neurology.”
After Aderibigbe completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering at University of South Florida, she then moved north to Georgia, to get her masters degree at Georgia Institute of Technology. She completed her masters and is now nearing completion of her doctorate degree at the same university.
“What an honor to be a part of one of the most highly ranked schools in the country,” she said.
It was during this time that Aderibigbe discovered her calling and her true passion — research. She decided to give research a try because it looks good on medical school applications, she said. Her first research job was as an intern at a lab that was studying age-related deafness.
“I started learning about data and how to do research,” she said. “I just fell in love with research and started looking for schools.”
Aderibigbe has now officially married her two passions together. Her passion for pediatric neurology and research is useful for her as she now works in a lab that researches traumatic brain injuries in children and adolescents.
“I have always been interested in the brain and kids,” she said. “The leading cause of death of children aged 0-4 and children aged 15-19 is traumatic brain injury. We are studying the cellular, molecular and pathological responses, focusing on RNAs and mRNAs, that occur with traumatic brain injuries.”
Aderibigbe looks at the changes that happen at one day and at one week after brain injury occurs. To do this, she works with piglets, who, according to Aderibigbe, have similar brain anatomy and development to that of infants and toddlers.
“I utilize piglets to study head rotational injury,” she said. “By implementing factors like age, time post-injury, injury severity and treatment, I apply RNA-sequencing and complementary tissue experiments to study cellular, molecular and pathological responses in the brain after injury.”
According to Aderibigbe, rotational head injuries caused by falls or motor vehicle accidents are “very common” in children. The research she is working on has helped to shed light into new RNA markers associated with pediatric brain response and neurorecovery RNAs that “appear to potentially drive brain-repairing efforts.”
“These RNAs could serve as potential diagnostic and therapeutic markers for pediatric brain injury,” she said. “Additionally, we elucidated [explained] the mechanism of a drug called Cyclosporine A in regulating RNAs to accelerate recovery. Thereby supporting its potential therapeutic benefits in the setting of pediatric injury.”
Aderibigbe has presented her research seven times at national and international research conferences, won three awards, honors, and a prestigious research fellowship, and she has published her research in peer-reviewed journals.
“My passion is to help improve patient outcomes, and so understanding patient needs is a huge part of that,” Aderibigbe said. “Therefore, I attend neurotrauma conferences where I get to meet and listen to survivors and caregivers of people who have suffered traumatic brain injury.”
Another one of her passions is mentoring. According to Aderibigbe, she was heavily involved in K-12 STEM outreach while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree. She has mentored over 40 students by helping them with graduate school applications and answering questions they may have on navigating graduate school, especially those who are striving to get a doctorate degree.
“I really want to encourage young women and men to pursue their goals,” she said. “I don’t focus on myself, but I like to show people that if I can do all of this, they can do whatever their dream is, too. I encourage people to find a mentor who will advocate for you and get started early. The earlier the better in STEM fields. Also, remember, you’ve got this. Whatever it is you are doing, you can accomplish it.”
Aderibigbe operates a website called PhDing Gracefully (https://phd-inggracefully.com/ ) that tells her story and serves as a platform for those needing mentoring to get in touch.
