UWF Creates Office of
Undergraduate Research Research by a recent University of West Florida graduate has the potential to positively affect the lives and health of millions of people worldwide.
attempting to chemically synthesize the compounds he designed. This could potentially lead to a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of AIDS.
As a UWF undergraduate student, Joshua Brown was a member of a team which developed four compounds that could have the potential to inhibit the spread of HIV through the body. HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is the virus that causes AIDS.
Brown returned to UWF after the summer program and worked closely with Dr. Mike Huggins, Chair UWF Chemistry to continue his research.
A 2012 UWF graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, Brown is now a graduate student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) where his research began with a Summer 2011 program in which he worked with Dr. Mike Summers, a professor at UMBC and UWF alumnus. “Josh is an extremely bright and motivated young man. He made terrific progress on a project aimed at developing a new class of antiviral molecules that bind to the HIV-1 capsid protein and inhibit viral maturation,” said Summers. “His progress exceeded that of some of the graduate students in our Ph.D. program, so I invited him back to the lab this past winter so he could finish his work.” Summers said Brown took the project to a new level by
“The great thing about UWF is that because it is a bit smaller than some other universities, I was able to get so much lab experience,” said Brown. “It definitely gave me an edge during my internship at UMBC.” Brown’s efforts are widely recognized. He is the first student from UWF to enter into a dual M.D./Ph.D. program, having been accepted for that program not only by UMBC but also several others. UWF Created the Office of Undergraduate Research in 2010 to enhance our niche and focus on undergraduate research. Students work side-by-side with world-class teacher-scholars, even at the undergraduate level, giving our students unparalleled opportunities, and providing a competitive edge as they enter the job market.
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