South African Medical Council and University of Cape Town | South Africa
Dr. Afolake Temitope Arowolo is a C2 NRF-rated Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council and Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town, with more than a decade of experience in biochemistry, molecular biology, and functional genomics. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from Rhodes University, and earlier degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University. Her research has spanned teaching and supervising students at undergraduate, honours and postgraduate levels, delivering courses in molecular biology, structural biology, biochemistry, enzyme and protein characterisation, as well as quality control and molecular techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 screening, PCR / qPCR, cloning, and electrophoresis. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed research articles, including a filed patent on novel inhibitors of human 5-alpha reductase for androgenetic alopecia, and has secured various international and local grants and fellowships. Her work has been cited in the scientific literature many times, reflecting a solid h-index (approximately mid- to high-teens) and citations in excess of one hundred. She is active in editorial and peer review duties, mentors, especially for scholars from under-represented backgrounds, and her current research interest is identifying novel therapeutic agents for diseases such as diabetes cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and fibrosing skin and hair disorders, applying functional genomics, nanobiotechnology, molecular biology and enzymology.
Featured Publications:
Tambwe, N., Sinkala, M., Oluwole, O., Khumalo, N., & Arowolo, A. (2025). An integrative genotyping and gene expression profiling of the mutated human FAM111B gene and fibrosis-associated pathway in the POIKTMP syndrome. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. (Article in Press).
Oluwole, O. G., Arowolo, A., Musa, E., Levitt, N., & Matjila, M. (2025). The identification of a novel missense variant in the ChAT gene in a patient with gestational diabetes denotes a plausible genetic association. Open Medicine, 20(1), 1225.
Johnson, R., Shabalala, S., Mabasa, L., Kotzé-Hörstmann, L., Sangweni, N., Ramharack, P., Sharma, J., Pheiffer, C., Arowolo, A., & Sadie-Van Gijsen, H. (2025). Integrated profiling of adiponectin and cytokine signaling pathways in high-fat diet-induced MASLD reveals early markers of disease progression. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 1–5.
Naicker, D., Rhoda, C., Sunda, F., & Arowolo, A. (2024). Unravelling the intricate roles of FAM111A and FAM111B: From protease-mediated cellular processes to disease implications. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(5), 2845.
Ntshingila, S., Oputu, O., Arowolo, A. T., & Khumalo, N. P. (2023). Androgenetic alopecia: An update. JAAD International, 13, 150–158.
Musa, E., Salazar-Petres, E., Arowolo, A., Levitt, N., Matjila, M., & Sferruzzi-Perri, A. N. (2023). Obesity and gestational diabetes independently and collectively induce specific effects on placental structure, inflammation and endocrine function in a cohort of South African women. The Journal of Physiology, 601(7), 1287–1306.