Festus Ajibefun is a PhD student in the Department of Entomology at Kansas State University and a Visiting Research Assistant in the Dong Laboratory at Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on extracellular vesicles, RNA biology, and molecular mechanisms of cellular communication in both insect and human systems.
At Yale, Festus contributes to a NIH-R24 project, where he investigates extracellular vesicle (EV) RNA cargo as potential biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease. His work involves EV isolation from plasma, RNA extraction, RNA quality assessment, and preparation of patient-derived plasma samples for downstream sequencing and molecular characterization.
His doctoral research at Kansas State University focuses on the role of extracellular vesicles in the systemic spread of RNA interference (RNAi) in the Southern Corn Rootworm, Diabrotica undecimpunctata. Through this work, he studies EV-mediated RNA transport and its contribution to RNAi susceptibility using molecular biology, cell culture, microscopy, and gene expression analyses.
Festus received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Windsor and a Master of Science degree in Entomology from Auburn University. He is broadly interested in understanding how extracellular vesicles and RNA molecules regulate cellular communication across diverse biological systems and how these mechanisms can be leveraged for applications in agriculture and human health.