The Life Scientific - Ijeoma Uchegbu

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Imagine a nanoparticle, less that a thousandth of the width of a human hair, that is so precise that it can carry a medicine to just where it’s needed in the body, improving the drug’s impact and reducing side effects.

Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London, has spent her career with this goal in mind. She creates nanoparticles to carry medicines to regions of the body that are notoriously hard to reach, such as the back of the eye and the brain. With clinical trials in the pipeline, she hopes to treat blindness with eyedrops, transform pain relief and tackle the opioid crisis.

Ijeoma took an unconventional route into science. Growing up in the UK and in Nigeria, she tells Professor Jim Al-Khalili her remarkable life story, from being fostered by a white family in rural Kent, while her Nigerian parents finished their studies, to struggling to pay the bills through her PhD as a single mum with young children.

So passionate is Ijeoma to spread her love of science, she’s even turned to stand-up comedy to help get her message across!

Transcript

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0:00.0	On Radio 4, the more you listen, the more you see.
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Brian Cox.
0:05.6	And I'm Robin Ince, and this is The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:08.3	In this series, we're going to have a planet off.
0:10.8	I feel like Jupiter wins.
0:12.8	And after all of that, we're just going to chill out a bit.
0:15.9	We're talking about your bog standard.
0:17.8	Ice, not the fancy one.
0:20.1	Science with funny bits.
0:21.9	The new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:24.1	Listen on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
0:28.6	Imagine for a moment a particle on the nanoscale,
0:32.0	less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair,
0:35.0	that operates with such precision that it can carry a medicine to a specific
0:38.8	site in the body and release it just where it's needed, improving the drug's impact and reducing
0:44.3	side effects. This idea has inspired and driven the research of my guest today.
0:49.3	Ijoma Uchebou is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London. She uses the nanoparticles
0:56.6	she's created to carry medicines to regions of the body that are notoriously hard to reach,
1:02.5	the back of the eye and the brain. With clinical trials in the pipeline, her hope is to treat
1:07.7	blindness with eyedrops, transform pain relief, and address the opioid crisis.
1:13.9	Ejoma grew up in the UK and in Nigeria, and took an unconventional route to becoming a scientist.
1:20.1	A single mother with three small children trying to make ends meet, she might have given up on the idea.
	...

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