Dr. Julia Olayanju is a scientist, educator and thought-leader driving change in the food industry. 

 In 2015 she founded FoodNiche Inc. focused on tackling the challenges in our food system through strategic partnerships and educative programming. 

Since 2017, she and her team have facilitated learning and collaboration among food industry stakeholders and thought-leaders in the academic communities. Each year FoodNiche Tech Summit and FoodNiche Global Summit brings hundreds of leaders together. More recently she co-founded FoodNiche-ED, a technology company that empowers teachers to introduce the science of food and health to schools without increasing the teachers’ workload.

She pursued and earned a doctorate degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, then the University Of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Her doctoral research work started by investigating the molecular basis for a phenomenon observed in cancer cells called the Warburg effect using Saccharomyces cerevisae as a model. She later went on to study anticancer agents found in cruciferous vegetables. Specifically, she studied the mechanism of action of Moringa isothiocyanates in breast cancer cells. She is curious to learn how specific diets increase cancer patient survival with the goal of understanding how the onset of cancer can be delayed or prevented in people at risk.

Dr. Olayanju has been featured on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider and other authority sites. 

She is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at Centenary University, NJ. She lives with her husband and two boys in New Jersey