AMR & Food Safety→

Antimicrobial resistance reached Jessica through food rather than through medicine. Her B.Sc. project sampled poultry feed sold in Enugu markets and tested what grew from it for antibiotic sensitivity. Feed is upstream of the birds, and the birds are upstream of people. From January to August 2022, during national service, she worked as a microbiologist in the Food Safety Control Unit at Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area in Lagos, on sample collection and analysis, microbiological quality control, and compliance against FDA, USDA and ISO standards. The posting also involved data restructuring and stakeholder communication, which are the parts of food safety that never appear in a microbiology syllabus. She served concurrently as Vice President of the NYSC Servicom community development group. That pairing of laboratory testing with regulatory compliance is what the Pharmaceutical QC/QA node picks up on the industrial side. It is also the background she brought with her to sterile technique when she first reached a cell culture laboratory in Freiburg in January 2025.