About CENUMAT

Twenty-five years tracing the nervous system through African fauna and comparative models.

Who we are, who leads the bench, and the fellowships that took the work abroad and brought it home.

Our Story

Comparative anatomy at the centre of translational neuroscience in Africa.

Founded within the Department of Veterinary Anatomy as CENUMAT — the Centre for Neuroscience with Novel Models and Alternative Therapies — the group investigates neurodegeneration, developmental neuroscience, and the neurotoxic impact of environmental exposures such as vanadium and heavy metals - alongside protective roles of nutrition and phytochemicals. Work spans rodents, squirrels, bats, and other indigenous species, situating comparative anatomy at the centre of translational neuroscience in Africa.

The group is a member laboratory of the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA) network and has trained researchers through IBRO/ISN schools, Humboldt fellowships, and postgraduate supervision across theriogenology, neuroanatomy and toxicology.

200+Peer-reviewed publications
25Years of active research
9Species studied

Honors & Training

A career built on fellowships that sent the work abroad and brought it home.

  1. 2025–present

    Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the Nigerian Academy of Science.

  2. 2021–2024

    Director, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Ibadan.

  3. 2017

    Elected President, Society of Neuroscientists of Africa; appointed Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan.

  4. 2014–17

    Head, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Ibadan.

  5. 2013

    Grass Fellow, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.

  6. 2011–15

    Editor-in-Chief, Nigerian Veterinary Journal.

  7. 2010–11

    Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, University of Würzburg, Germany, on a MacArthur Overseas Training Grant.

  8. 2008

    International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO) Research Fellow, Pennsylvania State University.

  9. 2007

    Society for Neuroscience Fellowship, Neurobiology Course, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.

Among the lab's findings is a skull depression identified in Nigerian goats, now catalogued in comparative anatomy as the Caudofrontal Depression of Olopade.

Networks

The lab remains active in the regional and international neuroscience community that shaped its founding.

Society of Neuroscientists of Africa IBRO / ISN Schools Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Grass Foundation, Woods Hole MacArthur Foundation