Frederick A Ekuban, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Frederick Adams Ekuban is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. His research program in environmental health and toxicology focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which environmental pollutants, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), interact with lifestyle factors to promote liver disease.
Dr. Ekuban brings unique international expertise to toxicological research, having completed his academic training across multiple countries. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacoscience with a focus on Toxicology from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, where he made significant contributions to environmental neurotoxicology by providing the first morphological and neuro-functional evidence of Nrf2's protective role against acrylamide-induced neurotoxicity. He previously obtained his M.Sc. in General Toxicology and Environmental Health Risk Assessment from the University of Eastern Finland and his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Medical Laboratory Technology from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Ekuban completed his first postdoctoral training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN, where he investigated nuclear receptor signaling in metabolic liver disease. He then moved to the University of Louisville for a second postdoctoral fellowship, where he further advanced his expertise in environmental hepatology and toxicology, with recent findings on PFOS-alcohol interactions published in Toxicological Sciences. His research spans neurotoxicology, mechanistic toxicology, and environmental hepatology, with publications in several high-impact journals.
Dr. Ekuban's scientific excellence has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including the Kentucky Colonel Award, the United Nations PFAS Awareness Gubernatorial Award, the Gabriel L. Plaa Education Award from the Society of Toxicology, and the First-Place Postdoctoral Poster Award at the 2024 Ohio Valley Society of Toxicology meeting, among others. In July 2025, he was selected as a Presidential Research Scholar by the Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center, one of the University's most prestigious research honors. He is an active member of the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences (CIEHS) and serves as the Career Development Program Representative on its Internal Advisory Committee. Dr. Ekuban's long-term research goal is to establish a robust program investigating environmental pollutants as disease-modifying factors, with emphasis on (1) elucidating molecular mechanisms; (2) identifying biomarkers of susceptibility; and (3) developing evidence-based interventions to reduce environmental health burdens and improve public health outcomes.