From George Washington Carver to Dr. Hortense Dodo
posted by Chibu Umerah | April 6, 2017 | In NewsIf you attended elementary school in the U.S., you must have heard about George Washington Carver, the African American scientist who made history with this ground-breaking research on peanuts, sweet potatoes, and much more dealing with agriculture. His legacy lives on.
Thanks to him, today we can enjoy many products and snacks like peanut butter, peanut brittle—basically anything dealing with peanuts — unless you have a peanut allergy. If only he were alive today, he perhaps can solve the problem concerning peanut allergies. Luckily there is a George Washington Carver of today and her name is Dr. Hortense Dodo.
Dr. Dodo is an African American scientific entrepreneur, and an inventor. She is also a molecular biologist, and a university professor. Dr. Dodo developed a patented technology to eliminate allergens from peanuts, one of the most severe and deadly food allergies. In the U.S., approximately four million people report allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. Studies show the number of children living with peanut allergy appears to have tripled between 1997 and 2008, according to FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education). About $25 billion dollars are spent on food allergies in the U.S. alone with peanut allergies being a common and most severe food allergy. Unfortunately, so far there is no cure for peanut allergies, but thanks to Dr. Dodo’s work, there may be a solution on the market soon.
What makes Dr. Dodo an entrepreneur is due to the fact that she is President of IngateyGen, LLC. “Ingatey” (In-GAH-Tay) translates to “peanut” in Akan, a West African language as she is originally from the Ivory Coast.
“Anyone can be an inventor, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your race is, and it is not out of reach. Being an inventor is more common than you think,” Dodo said.
Dr. Koffi Konan is the Vice President of IngateyGen, LLC, and he has expressed interest in mentoring young men to become a part of science as well as business.
“Teaching can inspire the youth to learn how to not only become inventors, but also how to become their own boss. If we can inspire as many young people as possible to go beyond their capabilities, then we’ve done a good job,” Konan said.
Dr. Dodo has expressed interest in mentorship as well. She has signed a teaming agreement with FSU to conduct joint research and student mentorship with the department of Biological Sciences, thanks to both herself and Dr. M. Kassem, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.
Currently, her business resides in North Carolina, but she wishes to expand her business to overseas, to places like Africa, Europe and Australia which have already expressed interest. She has also been approached to remove allergens from other foods like fish, eggs, gluten and even more in the future.
Before you know it, the world will laugh at the idea that food allergies ever existed. More importantly, there will be less food allergy related deaths—and it all started with peanuts.
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