University: Claflin University
Hometown: Hephzibah, GA
NIH Research Project:
Assessment of ADCC Activity in Rhesus Macaques Immunized with Replication Competent Adenovirus Recombinants Expressing SIV Genes
Mentor: Marjorie Robert-Guroff, Ph.D.
Basic Research Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
|
|
 |
My mother always says that when I was in elementary school I used to bombard her at the door and tell her all of the things that I had learned in my science lesson that day. Of course, my love of science and the analytical process were very general. After the death of my brother, I decided that I wanted to do something to help people who suffer from diseases. This led me to pursue a career in medicine.
Attending A. R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet High School helped me experience a little of what the health field is like. By participating in a medical laboratory assisting class, I realized how much I enjoyed a lab setting.
I am a recent graduate from Claflin University with a B.S. in biochemistry. During the summer after my freshman year, I was introduced to joint M.D./Ph.D. programs at my first internship at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. I realized that with this degree I can help the largest amount of people by participating in translational research. After completing a year of my two-year service obligation to the NIH, I plan to pursue an M.D./Ph.D.
Here at the NIH, I am training with Dr. Marjorie Robert-Guroff, head of the Immune Biology of Retroviral Infection Section of the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Ruth Florese, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory. We are researching AIDS vaccine development using replication-competent adenovirus recombinants. My specific project is to utilize flow cytometry to screen for antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, an immune mechanism that destroys cells expressing viral proteins on their membranes, against SIV proteins in rhesus macaques.
|
