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Favour O. Igwezeke I am a final-year PharmD student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, working at the intersection of machine learning and biology. My research focuses on mechanism-grounded representation learning — building biological models that rely on mechanism rather than statistical shortcuts, testing which of the two a model uses under distribution shift, and reasoning over structured knowledge under uncertainty. I currently work with Assoc. Prof. Collins A. Onyeto (Pharmacology & Toxicology, UNN) on computational toxicology — single-cell models of toxicity risk — and, in parallel, with Prof. Charles O. Nnadi (Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry, UNN) on computational drug discovery. I also collaborate with the CaresAI Research Group (led by Dr. Mary Adewunmi), where my research centers on machine learning and NLP for knowledge discovery and reasoning in clinical AI, with applications in oncology and patient safety. Alongside this, I work with the SPARK MICCAI Academy on prior-informed representation learning for medical imaging, supervised under Dr. Udunna Anazodo. Previously, I interned at Genomac Institute in cancer genomics and HackBio in NGS bioinformatics. |
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Research InterestsI am broadly interested in machine learning for biology and biomedical discovery. On the machine learning side, I think about causal and mechanistic representation learning, model evaluation under distribution shift, and uncertainty-aware reasoning in biomedical AI. On the biology side, I am drawn to single-cell genomics, trajectory inference, perturbation modelling, drug response prediction, and antibody repertoire analysis. |
NewsFellowship Jun 2026 — Awarded the ISMB 2026 Conference Fellowship by the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) — $1,500 USD competitive award. Fellowship Jun 2026 — Awarded the BioC 2026 Travel Scholarship — $550 USD travel award + complimentary conference registration. Oral Jun 2026 — Presenting absuite as an oral talk at ISMB 2026, BioC 2026, and EuroBioc 2026. Paper 2026 — CaresAI at SMM4H-HeaRD 2026 accepted at the 11th Workshop on Social Media Mining for Health @ ACL 2026. (To appear.) Paper 2026 — CT-DEB'26 accepted at CL4Health Workshop, LREC-COLING 2026. Grant Mar 2026 — Awarded the Okwuchukwu Fund Research Award, UNN — NGN 120,000 competitive undergraduate research grant (1 of 3 recipients university-wide). Fellowship Dec 2025 — ABI Travel Fellowship, African Bioinformatics Institute — Full support, CoGSAYR Africa Summit, Lagos. 🥇 Award Feb 2025 — 1st Place, Gabriel Ezenri Award for Excellence in Research, ISPOR-HEOR UNN. |
Selected PublicationsUnderline = primary contributor. Full list on Google Scholar. |
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CaresAI at SMM4H-HeaRD 2026: Predicting TNM Staging
J. I. Abubakar, J. Jarme, F. Igwezeke, M. Adewunmi 11th Workshop on Social Media Mining for Health (SMM4H-HeaRD) @ ACL 2026 — To appear. |
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CaresAI at CT-DEB'26: Detecting Dosing Errors in Clinical Trials Using Domain-Specific Transformer Embeddings and Classification Models
L. Hamnett, F. Igwezeke, J. I. Abubakar, M. A. Adewunmi CL4Health Workshop, LREC-COLING 2026 Paper / Code |
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TransQSAR-pf: A Bio-Informed QSAR Framework Using Plasmodium falciparum Stress Signatures for Enhanced Antiplasmodial Activity Prediction
F. O. Igwezeke, C. O. Nnadi Engineering Proceedings, 124(1), 37. MDPI, 2026. Paper / Code / Poster |
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Deep Learning-Based Behavioural Analysis of Anxiolytic-Like Activity of Indigofera bracteolata Methanol Stem Extract in Wistar Rats
C. A. Onyeto, F. O. Igwezeke, C. C. Uwakwe, et al. Under Review — Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods, 2026 Code |
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Safety Profile of HIV Vaccine Candidates Across Clinical Trial Phases: A Scoping Review
V. A. Ayeni, S. I. Azumara, C. E. Agbo, F. O. Igwezeke, et al. Under Review — BMC Infectious Diseases, 2025 |
Software |
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absuite
— R/Bioconductor Package for Antibody Repertoire Profiling
F. O. Igwezeke Oral — ISMB 2026 · EuroBioc 2026 · BioC 2026 In preparation for Bioconductor submission Code |
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Inspired by a template from Jon Barron. |