University of Pittsburgh
11/11/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/11/2025 11:06
This alumnus is blending bioscience and beauty in the Bay Area
This alumnus is blending bioscience and beauty in the Bay Area
November 11, 2025
Chuba Oyolu in a downtown area
By day, Chuba Oyolu is a biomedical engineer, technologist and co-founder of Curve Biosciences, a rising biotech company in San Mateo, California, helping to bring precision to chronic disease care.
But the Bay Area is also a canvas for Oyolu, an artist whose colorful geometric murals of public figures elevate everyday spaces and reflect his twin passion for bioscience and expressive art.
"People usually think that science and art are completely different, but to me, they're not," Oyolu said.
Creating a beautiful painting or trying to solve a scientific query, he added, "are pretty much the same thing, just in different forms.
"Same exact process I go through, the outputs are just different."
Oyolu grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, as the youngest of five children. He immigrated to the U.S. in 2000 and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He also went on to earn a PhD from Stanford in biomedical engineering and genetics.
It was a challenging journey that made Oyolu (ENGR '04) appreciate the values of possibility and resilience, themes that show up in his science work and his murals.
His public art series has focused on iconic figures - like Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, Prince and Bruce Lee. Pieces were originally completed on small scales, often no bigger than a table tennis board for public seating spaces.
His piece on the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is his largest mural to date. The portrait, which spans much of the side of an eight-story building overlooking San Jose, California, made national news when it was unveiled in January 2021. Oyolu said Ginsburg's life as a cancer survivor fit themes of persistence and endurance he's drawn to when he creates.
Much of this is rooted in Oyolu's own journey. Like many students, when Oyolu arrived at Pitt, he had to learn to become independent. He had no family in Pittsburgh and had to figure out on his own how to manage his $500 monthly student stipend. Along the way, he learned lessons in diligence, budgeting and never giving up.
His art and science both symbolize these lessons. Curve Biosciences is thriving - six months ago, the company received an $11 million award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, with most of the money going toward funding the study of liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis. Even more recently, Curve announced it had raised $40 million in additional funding.
"The secret is to keep going," Oyolu said. "Life's going to hit you in the head with a brick every once in a while. You're going to screw something up, you're gonna fail. Something's not gonna go right, whatever. The secret is to always take care of yourself, keep going and you'll eventually do well."
Photography courtesy of Chuba Oyolu
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