Oshiorenoya Eghierua Agabi, born in 1979 in Lawanson, Lagos, Nigeria, and known professionally as Osh Agabi, is a Nigerian-Swiss-American physicist, computational neuroscientist, bioengineer, and entrepreneur who is building what many believe will be one of the most consequential technologies of the 21st century.
He is approximately 46 years old, the founder and CEO of Koniku Inc., a Silicon Valley-based synthetic biology company, and the creator of the Konikore, a device that combines living neurons with silicon to create what he describes as the world’s first smell processor. He speaks five languages, has lived in six countries across three continents, and represents one of the most extraordinary intellectual journeys any Nigerian scientist has undertaken.
Osh Agabi Profile
| Name | Osh Agabi |
| Real Name | Oshiorenoya Eghierua Agab |
| Date of Birth | 1979 |
| State of Origin | Lagos state |
| Tribe | N/A |
| Nationality | Nigerian-Swiss-American |
| Occupation | A Nigerian-Swiss-American physicist, computational neuroscientist, bioengineer, and entrepreneur |
| Religion | N/A |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Net Worth | N/A |
| Copied from | Content101.com |
Educational Background
Osh Agabi attended school in Lagos before enrolling at the University of Lagos in 1997, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 2001. He then moved to Sweden for further postgraduate studies at Umeå University before enrolling at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, one of the world’s top science and technology universities, to pursue PhD studies in physics and computational neuroscience, which he left in 2010.
He then moved to Imperial College London, where he worked in the Department of Bioengineering and completed a PhD in bioengineering with a focus on neuroengineering, building and customising two-photon microscopes for studying synaptic transmission in the mouse visual cortex, before taking a leave of absence in 2015 to found Koniku.
Career
After graduating from the University of Lagos in 2001, Osh joined Neuronics AG in Switzerland as one of the pioneer employees of the early pick-and-place robot company, rising to programme leader by 2005 before the company was acquired in 2008. He subsequently pursued his doctoral research in Zürich and London before founding Koniku Inc. in California in 2015.
At Koniku, he and his team have developed the Konikore, a device that combines bioengineered neurons with FPGA semiconductor technology to detect, analyse, and output digital data about a wide range of smells. The underlying concept, using living neurons as the processing units of a computing system, is unprecedented. The technology has attracted interest from Procter and Gamble, AB InBev, ExxonMobil, Airbus, and the United States Department of Defense, with airport security applications among the most discussed potential deployments. He has presented his work at TED, where his talk on building computers from living brain cells became one of the conference’s most watched science presentations.
In September 2026, Leadership newspaper’s Local Spotlight feature profiled his work, describing the Konikore as a device that could smell danger before a human even knew it was there, and placing his contribution in the context of a new generation of African scientists reshaping global technology from the outside in.
Controversies
Osh Agabi has not been at the centre of any personal or professional controversy. The most significant debate surrounding his work is scientific rather than personal: the question of whether bioengineered neurons can be reliably harnessed at commercial scale in the way his technology promises, and whether the ethical dimensions of using living biological material in computing systems have been sufficiently interrogated.
On the positive side, the breadth of institutional interest in Koniku’s technology from defence agencies, global consumer goods companies, and aerospace suggests that serious organisations have concluded the science is credible and the commercial applications are real. On the challenging side, some scientists have described the timeline and scale of Koniku’s ambitions as significantly ahead of where the underlying biology currently sits, raising questions about the gap between demonstration and deployment that any deep technology company must eventually close.
Osh Agabi Social Media Handle
Osh Agabi does not have any official or publicly known social media handles.
Personal Life
Oshiorenoya Eghierua Agabi was born in 1979 in Lawanson, Lagos, Nigeria, making him approximately 46 years old. He grew up in Lagos before his education took him to Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and his entrepreneurial ambition eventually landed him in Silicon Valley. He speaks five languages and has lived across Nigeria, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Beyond these details, the specifics of his personal and family life are not available to the public.
Osh Agabi Net Worth
Osh Agabi’s net worth is not available to the public.