Quality Control Scientist

Sophia Adelekun is a pharmaceutical scientist and drug repurposing researcher whose work sits at the intersection of analytical chemistry, cancer pharmacology, and public health. Holding an MSc in Drug Design and Discovery (Merit) from the University of Salford and a BSc in Industrial Chemistry from Ambrose Ali University, she has built a career defined by a single conviction: that science exists to protect people. As a Quality Control Chemist in the pharmaceutical and water treatment industries, she has worked under NAFDAC, WHO, GMP, and ISO frameworks, including identifying and correcting a critical out of specification chlorine batch before it reached consumers, an intervention that exemplifies the invisible but vital work of quality science in public health. Her MSc research, conducted under academic supervision at the University of Salford, contributed to an investigation into the repurposing of fendiline derivatives as potential targeted anticancer agents; work involving organic synthesis, compound characterisation, and cytotoxicity evaluation across two cancer cell lines, which deepened her expertise in the rapidly growing field of cardiovascular drug repurposing for oncology. Looking ahead, she is pursuing further academic research with a focus on sex specific pharmacological responses to repurposed drugs in cancer treatment, an area she believes represents one of the most underexplored gaps in contemporary oncology and one where rigorous scientific inquiry could meaningfully improve treatment outcomes for women globally. Alongside her scientific career, Sophia volunteered for six months at an NHS hospital in Bolton, supporting over sixty patients weekly, a deliberate choice to remain connected to the human realities that pharmaceutical science ultimately serves. A scholar from an early age, she won her first scholarship at nine years old and was later recognised as one of the top three natural science students in her graduating set. She is a scientist shaped equally by the laboratory and by life.