Omonike is a Professor of Pharmacology and Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation at Texas Southern University (TSU).

She has over 20 years of research experience in drug discovery and development, spanning major pharmaceutical companies (Merck Research Laboratories and Bristol-Myers Squibb) and academia. Her formal training in pharmacology was at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHU), Baltimore, Maryland. At JHU, she was awarded prestigious pre-doctoral fellowships from both National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and Merck Research Laboratories.

Dr. Olaleye’s research efforts have been focused on the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents for treatment of infections caused by: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Leishmania major, and Enterococcus faecalis. To date, she has discovered and characterized structurally diverse small molecule inhibitors with potent and selective activity against M. tuberculosis, E. faecalis and L. major