As more Nigerians continue to do the continent proud in various sectors, Nigeria is once again shining bright in the medical world.
Nigerian neurosurgeon, Nelson M. Oyesiku is the president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) which represents some 50,000 neurosurgeons worldwide. His tenure began in September 2021.
Oyesiku, a Nigerian-born professor of neurosurgery and Endocrinology, is also currently the chair of the department of Neurological Surgery and Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
Before now, he served as director of the Inaugural Daniel Louis Barrow Chair in Neurosurgery and Vice-Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery / Director of the Neurosurgical Residency Program at the Emory University School of Medicine. He was also Director of Laboratory and Molecular Neurosurgery and Biotechnology at Emory University School of Medicine.
Born in Nigeria, Oyesiku had his secondary education at St. Gregory’s College, Lagos before obtaining a degree Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan in 1979.
He moved on to the University of London as a Commonwealth Scholar where he obtained an MSc in Occupational Medicine and did his neurosurgical residency training.
Following his residency, he completed a Ph.D. in the Neuroscience graduate program at Emory University; after which he was appointed to the Neurosurgical faculty in 1993.
As a board-certified neurosurgeon, Oyesiku has performed over 2,000 pituitary tumor surgeries. He is one of the first to use 3D endoscopy in pituitary surgery and his clinical focus is on the surgical treatment of molecular biology of pituitary tumuor surgery.
He is one of few surgeons in the US and worldwide (and the first in Georgia) to utilize advanced 3-D endoscopic surgery for the resection of pituitary tumors.
In 2009, Dr. Oyesiku was one of the first to use the Visionsense 3D stereoscopic vision system at the Emory Pituitary Center at Emory University Hospital and five years later, Emory became the first medical center in the country to use the same company’s 3D HD stereoscopic system, utilizing its stereoscopic and endoscopic views.
He is the principal investigator of the R25 NIH training grant for neurosurgery.
Oyesiku and his team of researchers were responsible for performing the first studies on high throughput gene expression studies that identified unique aspects of pituitary adenoma gene expression which led to a new imaging procedure and potential targeted therapy of pituitary tumors. This molecular imaging diagnostic tool was pioneered and first utilized at Emory for patients with pituitary tumors, this imaging allows doctors to identify a key tumor marker in patients with clinically nonfunctional pituitary tumors, identifying patients for a potential new, targeted chemotherapy for clinically nonfunctional pituitary tumors.
Oyesiku’s current research includes the investigation of the development of pituitary adenomas using genome-wide association studies and whole genome sequencing methods. His laboratory contains one of the largest pituitary tumor banks connected to a clinical database to study natural history, treatment outcomes, and molecular correlations.
Oyesiku has served on the board of directors of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, as chairman of the Maintenance of Certification Committee, as chairman of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons, and on the Advisory Council for Neurosurgery of the American College of Surgeons. He is also a member of the Residency Review Committee of Neurosurgery of the ACGME and was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He has held leadership positions in the following organizations: the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Federation for International Education in Neurosurgery, the Georgia Neurosurgical Society, the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.
He served as the Editor-in-Chief of NEUROSURGERY® Publications from June 2009 – October 2021.
Oyesiku is believed to come from a long line of medical doctors and physicians. His father was the first indigenous MD of the Nigerian Shipping Line in the 1960s.
Dr. Oyesiku was decorated as Baa Segun-Alabe (Surgeon-in-Chief) of Egbaland by the paramount ruler of Egbaland in Abeokuta, the capital city of Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State, to honor his efforts as a good ambassador of the community.
