Home Institution: Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria

Host institution in India: India Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India

Mutiu Idowu Kazeem holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria. His research interests include drug discovery, phytomedicine and functional foods, with special attention on diabetes mellitus and ageing. The main thrust of his research is the search for safer, more effective, and affordable drugs from natural sources – medicinal plants, foods, and aquatic organisms. This is due to the undesirable side effects and sometimes resistance to the present synthetic drugs. He has published over forty (40) articles in reputable journals and serves as reviewer for many peer-reviewed ones. He is a member of the Nigerian Young Academy (NYA), affiliate of African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and Fellow of Africa Science Leadership Programme (ASLP).

Project: Potential discovery of novel antidiabetic agents from some African medicinal plants: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by alterations in carbohydrate, fats and protein metabolism that results from defects in insulin secretion and/or insulin action. The number of people suffering from the disease worldwide is increasing at an alarming rate with a projected 628.6 million people likely to be diabetic by the year 2045 as against 424.9 million estimated in 2017. The management of diabetes mellitus is considered a global problem and successful treatment is yet to be discovered. The underlying goal of all diabetes management is to maintain an adequate blood glucose concentration. The main approach used in the management of diabetes is oral hypoglycemic drugs such as biguanides (metformin), sulfonylureas (glimepiride), and α-glucosidase inhibitors (acarbose). However, these drugs have been shown to have undesirable side effects and high secondary failure rates. In addition, these drugs cannot be afforded by majority of people living in rural communities of developing countries because of their high cost. These limitations of currently available antidiabetic agents have prompted researchers all over the world to investigate alternative antidiabetic remedies. Many medicinal plants and foods have been studied for their possible hypoglycemic potential using both in-vitro and in-vivo models. However, there is dearth of information on the isolation of bioactive compounds responsible for their antidiabetic properties as well as mechanisms of their antidiabetic action. The aim of this project is to isolate the bioactive compounds responsible for the antidiabetic properties of some African medicinal plants and determine the biochemical mechanism(s) underlying their antidiabetic activities.