Brian Ho

Brian Ho has had a passion for science since he was a young boy growing up in Antigua. He naturally gravitated toward biology in high school. When the time came to apply for college, he recalled a degree hanging on the wall in his doctor’s office. It was from FIU. With family in Miami, he decided to apply.

Brian is part of FIU’s Quantifying Biology In the Classroom (QBIC), a program for students wanting a more in-depth approach to studying biology, and the Minority Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training for Academic Research (MARC U*STAR), a program that provides funding for students doing research. He was a research assistant in the lab of Alexander Agoulnik, professor in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, studying the hormone Relaxin and whether it can be used as a possible cancer treatment. He studied protein response in yeast at University of California San Francisco through the Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP), a national program offering research opportunities to undergraduates at Howard Hughes Medical Institute labs. Brian also did research on E. coli at Columbia University through the Amgen Scholars program.

After graduating, Brian will study host-pathogen dynamics as a paid researcher with the National Institutes of Health. He also plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry. His goal is to become a university professor so he can teach, conduct research and mentor the next generation of scientists. He wants to help them discover their passions, just how his mentors did for him.

By Evelyn Perez