Featured Scholar:
Larry Jackson
2002 - 2003 University Scholar
Mentor: Ben Dunn
College of Medicine
Larry Jackson has always, for as long as he can remember,
wanted to be a doctor. “It’s something I always wanted to
do, ever since I was a little kid,” he says. “I never really
saw myself doing anything else.” Now a first-year medical student
at UF, his dream is coming true.
Born in Lakeland, Fla., Larry moved to Coral Springs at age 11 and graduated
from Stoneman Douglas High School in 1999. His mother, the area director
of the Broward County school board, set high standards for Larry and encouraged
him to pursue his goal of becoming a physician. He enrolled at UF in the
fall of 1999 and selected an interdisciplinary major in biochemistry and
molecular biology.
A Florida presidential scholar, Larry spent most of his time as an undergraduate
keeping up with his heavy course load, but he did find time to volunteer
for a Red Cross disaster action group and also served as a counselor at
a diabetes camp. During his senior year, Larry was selected for the University
Scholars Program to conduct research in the lab of Distinguished Professor
Ben Dunn in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
“I worked with the inhibitor for pepsin, which is a gastric enzyme
used in digestion,” Larry says. “My job was to mutant the
inhibitor, PI-3, and then test it in other enzymes in the aspartic proteinase
family—like malaria—and crystallize it.”
Larry says his project has broad applications and could be used to create
medications to better treat HIV and malaria. “You have enzymes in
this family that are very important for disease causes. What we were doing
was taking PI-3 and trying to find structural and genetic characteristics
that we can apply to other inhibitors. It’s very important to find
characteristics about certain inhibitors so you can apply it to other
work down the line.”
Larry received his bachelor’s degree in spring 2003 and entered
UF’s medical program this fall. He hasn’t decided yet what
area of medicine he would like to pursue, but says he enjoys cardiology
and neurology. He continues to conduct research assignments for class,
but no longer has time to work in Dunn’s lab. “My workload
is so much right now that I don’t have time for much,” he
says. “My life is pretty simple these days.”
When he is not studying, Larry enjoys traveling around the world. He has
become quiet the globetrotter and spent last summer in Europe, traveling
to France, Belgium, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain
and Portugal. He is planning a trip this year to Greece, New Zealand and
Australia.
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