Nwagwu Chinekwu studied Pharmacy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she also obtained a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutics with a specialization in nanomedicine and drug delivery in 2019. She received “The African-German Network of Excellence in Science - Programme Advocating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (AGNES-PAWS) - Intra-Africa Mobility Grant for Junior Female Researchers”, sponsored by BMBF (The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) in 2021 for a research visit to the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.  Recently, she was awarded the Otto Bayer Foundation Fellowship for Drug Discovery 2022. The fellowship sponsors a six-month research visit to the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Saarland.

Her research is focused on the application of nanotechnological strategies for the design of safer and more effective drug delivery systems in the prevention and management of infectious diseases such as malaria.

She is currently working on the project “Non-Skin Penetrating Nanogels Encapsulating Adsorbed Vapour Phase Emanators for Prolonged Mosquito Repellency”, which seeks to develop more effective mosquito repellents for the prevention of malaria and other mosquito-transmitted diseases.