CLOSE-UP: Achilefu, the ‘civil war kid’ who won US award for inventing goggles that see cancer cells

“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. But when name is lost, everything is lost,” Samuel Achilefu recalls this inscription made by his father after losing so much to the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970.

Achilefu, who was born in the mid-60s, was only a boy living in northern Nigeria with his relatively comfortable family. His father was working with hospitals and clinics when the Biafra war broke out.

Like many easterners caught in the north when the war began, Achilefu and his family relocated to the east, leaving all they had — but carried with them “a good name”.

“You just wondered why you went from having everything to having almost nothing,” he says, narrating how his uncle took them in and housed them for nearly a year.

“It felt weird to go from having a house with a room you call your own to having to share with many people. After about a year, my dad built a house where we settled.”

His father then made inscriptions on the wall of the new house, emphasizing to his family that you can lose your wealth but never lose a good name. This philosophy shaped Achifelu’s life afterwards as he builds a name for himself in the eradication of cancer across the world.

EDUCATION AND THE KIDS OF NIGERIA’S CIVIL WAR

Achilefu had his primary and secondary education in “some village schools” in Nigeria, but was fortunate to be one of five students to win a French government scholarship to attend graduate school in France, where he received a PhD in molecular and materials chemistry at the University of Nancy.

He had his post-doctoral studies at Oxford University, training on the “interface between chemistry and hematology, working on developing blood substitutes”.

In 1993, the Nigerian genius arrived St. Louis to become the first full-time staff member of the Discovery Research Department at Mallinckrodt Medical Inc.

With his rich and privileged education, Achifelu believes  many Nigerian children can reach the world, and change it, if given the opportunity — and that opportunity, he hopes to present.

“Looking back at my childhood, I remember seeing some exceptionally smart kids in the village school I attended during the Nigerian civil war. But they never had the opportunity to move forward,” he says.

“Can you imagine what the world would look like if they had the opportunity to fulfill their dreams? This thought has haunted me through my adult life. My dad sponsored many students when he was alive. I would like to do the same for college students, but in a different way.

“I envision creating an institute for global innovation in education and training, with talent searches for smart kids in low-resource areas of the world playing a central role. Depending on resources, a specified number of these kids will be identified yearly for comprehensive training and support through college.”

CANCER GOGGLES: YOU NEED DARKNESS TO SEE

“We are working in the dark, so that we can see the light…therefore, there is no darkeness unless you cannot see the light,” Achilefu says, while presenting one of the greatest breakthrough in the battle against cancer.

Achilefu, who is now the chief of the Optical Radiology Laboratory and a professor of radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, designed high-tech goggles to help surgeons see cancer cells, which are notoriously difficult to see, during surgical procedures.

The cells glow blue when viewed through the eyewear, helping to ensure that no stray tumor cells are left behind during surgery.

AWARD AND THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

On Jan. 14, 2015 Achilefu received the St. Louis Award at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The honor, awarded almost every year since 1932, recognizes area residents whose achievements reflect positively on the community.

Achilefu was recognized for leading a team that developed high-tech goggles that help surgeons “see” cancer.

He is currently working on a developing “a light-based cancer therapy aimed at overcoming the difficulty in reaching tumors in deep tissue with light”.

For him, his invention is not enough. He seeks to do even more.

“I want to play a role in eradicating cancer or making it a manageable disease. Toward this goal, we have developed a new approach to kill cancer cells, independent of the cancer type.

“There is a method of killing cancer with light – photodynamic therapy. People use it to treat superficial cancers, such as skin cancer, because the cancer has to be reachable by light to activate a light-sensitive drug. Or you can use an endoscope to introduce light to activate and kill cancer cells inside the body.

“We’ve discovered a new approach of using existing radiopharmaceuticals to create a light source within the tumor cells. We have tested this concept with success in animal models of cancer and plan to move into human studies in future.”

He has been married to Nnnena for 21 years. They have a daughter a 19-year-old daughter, Chisara, who attends Washington University, and a 16-year-old son, Kelechi.