I was born and raised in Limbe, Cameroon. Growing up in a 3rd world country, I was acutely aware of the shortage of Drug Discovery Toxicologists in Cameroon. Rural residents commonly rely on traditional/herbal medicine to satisfy their health needs because of their limited access to conventional medicine, but they have no scientific basis for the claimed efficacy and/or safety of these traditional remedies. These were some of the questions which to me needed to be answered, hence my motivation to pursue a Master's of Science degree in Biochemistry at the University of Buea, Cameroon, with a research focus in Natural Products Drug Discovery, and subsequently pursue a PhD degree in Toxicology at Iowa State University, with Drug Discovery Toxicology as my research focus.