Ijeoma Uchegbu is Chair in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London. She has studied the mechanisms of drug transport across biological barriers and created transformational drug transport nanoparticles. She was the first to show that peptides could be delivered across the blood brain barrier to elicit a pharmacological response when presented as nanofibers. These findings led to the enkephalin pain medicine, designed to address the opioid crisis. Three other medicine candidates based on this nanotechnology have been out-licensed to pharmaceutical companies in the US. As UCL’s Pro Vice Provost for Africa and the Middle East, she leads on the international research and teaching engagement strategy in this region.