He Left Lagos to Build a ‘Smell Cyborg’ and Now He’s Reimagining the Future of Life Itself

In the crowded, humming streets of Lawanson, a suburb of Surulere in Lagos, life is a sensory explosion. For a young Oshiorenoya Eghierua Agabi, known to the world today simply as Osh, this environment wasn't just home; it was a masterclass in the complexity of the world. Born in 1979, Osh grew up in a Nigeria that demanded a certain kind of "internal force" to navigate. It is this very force that eventually propelled him from the lecture halls of the University of Lagos to the cutting edge of Silicon Valley, where he is now doing something that sounds like pure science fiction: building computers made of living biological neurons. A true African who considers himself a "global citizen".

Osh’s journey didn't start with biology, but with the cold, hard laws of physics. In 1997, he stepped into the University of Lagos to study theoretical and mathematical physics. Even then, he was looking for ways to bridge the gap between the physical world and the digital one. His final year thesis focused on using piezoelectric materials, specifically a polymer called PVDF, to harvest energy from human movement to power mobile devices. It was an early sign of his obsession with efficiency and the hidden potential in everyday matter. But a chance encounter during his master's studies in Sweden changed everything. As Osh shared in a 2016 interview with IndieBio, a Russian professor gave him a piece of advice that would define his life’s work: if you want to make a real impact, go where the work hasn't been done and quantify the unquantified.

That "unquantified" frontier was the human brain. Osh realised that while we have spent decades trying to make silicon chips faster, we have ignored the most powerful computer in existence: the biological neuron. This realisation took him on an academic trek through the finest institutions in Europe, from Umeå University in Sweden to the prestigious ETH Zurich in Switzerland, and finally to Imperial College London. Along the way, he wasn't just studying; he was building. At a Swiss startup called Neuronics AG, he helped program robots that could autonomously categorise objects, and later, he led teams to develop neural chips that could interface with the human nervous system.

In 2015, Osh founded Koniku. The name itself is a defiant nod to his roots; in Yoruba, Koniku means "immortal." The mission was equally bold: to move away from the "silicon paradigm" and toward "wetware", the integration of living cells with electronic circuitry. Osh argues that biological systems are a million times more energy-efficient than silicon. While a traditional supercomputer requires massive server farms and incredible amounts of electricity to simulate even a fraction of brain activity, a few living neurons can perform complex sensing tasks on a fraction of a watt.

The flagship invention of this vision is the Konikore, a device Osh describes as a "smell cyborg." It is a small, handheld unit that contains a "biochip" packed with genetically engineered neurons. These neurons are programmed to act as receptors for specific molecules in the air. When the device "smells" a target, be it an explosive compound like TATP or a marker for a disease, the neurons fire, and the silicon components of the device translate that biological spark into a digital alert.

The results have been staggering. During double-blind trials conducted in collaboration with the FBI and police in Alabama, the Konikore achieved a 100% detection rate for trace amounts of explosives. To put that in perspective, elite K9 units—long considered the gold standard for scent detection—managed only 58% in the same tests. This isn't just a gadget; it’s a biological upgrade to global security. Speaking to the audience at TEDGlobal 2017 in Tanzania, Osh framed this not just as a technical win, but as a homecoming for African innovation, showing that the continent’s intellectual capital can lead the world's most advanced deep-tech sectors.

Today, Koniku’s reach is truly global. Since 2017, Osh has maintained a deepening partnership with Airbus, the aerospace giant. They are working together to integrate Konikore technology into airport terminals and aircraft, aiming for a "curbside to gate" security system that is entirely touchless and incredibly sensitive. But Osh isn't stopping at security. He envisions a future where the "bathroom becomes a healthcare data center." By placing these small smell processors in homes, the system could analyze the air for volatile organic compounds that signal the early stages of cancer or viruses like COVID-19, allowing individuals to, as Osh puts he, "become the CEO of their own health."

Despite his global success, Osh remains deeply connected to the Nigerian ecosystem. In 2020, Koniku closed a major funding round led by Platform Capital, a Nigerian investment firm. For Osh, having African capital back African-founded deep tech is essential. It reverses the old narrative of Africa as a passive recipient of technology and positions the continent as a primary driver of the next industrial revolution. In 2024, he took this vision to the Web Summit in Doha, Qatar, where he unveiled the Konikore mounted on a high-tech quadruped robot, showing that "biological sensing" is ready for the age of autonomous robotics.

Through it all, Osh relies on a personal philosophy he calls "Internal Force." Drawing on a metaphorical take on Newton’s First Law, he believes that while external forces can stop any moving object, a person moved by an internal conviction is unstoppable. For the makers in Lagos, Nairobi, or Johannesburg, Osh Agabi is more than just a scientist; he is proof that the most powerful technology we possess isn't made of gold or silicon—it's the internal force of the African mind.

Lessons for Budding Makers

Osh Agabi’s journey from a physics student in Lagos to a pioneer of biological computing offers powerful blueprints for any creator:

1. Quantify the Unquantified: Success often lies in the fields that others find too messy or complex to measure. By taking the advice of his professor to tackle the "unquantified" world of neuroscience, Osh moved away from the crowded silicon industry into a space where he could set the rules of the game.
2. Build Your Own Internal Force: In environments with high "external friction", such as infrastructure gaps or lack of traditional funding, your primary fuel must be internal conviction. As Osh teaches, a maker who is moved by their own inner vision cannot be easily derailed by the challenges of the external environment.