Barbara Nelson, Contributor

Terry Brown-Bryan - Contributed

Terry Brown-Bryan is definitely a pacesetter. She also has a generous spirit. As a result of the positive experience she had while doing undergraduate summer research at Loma Linda University in California, she decided to "recruit other Jamaicans to attend that university. My goal was to bring as many Jamaican students as possible to get the opportunity that I got."

She grew up in a big family in Roehampton, near Anchovy in St. James and, after attending Montego Bay High School, went on to the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville in 1996. For the next few years she was a DELTA PI Honor Society student there. While at NCU she was a teaching assistant in various laboratory courses in the depart-ment of natural sciences.

At that time of her life, Terry felt that she definitely wanted to become a medical doctor.

In 1998 she had the wonderful opportunity to do Undergraduate Summer Research in the department of microbiology and Molecular genetics in the Loma Linda University School of Medicine at Loma Linda. She worked in the laboratory of Dr. Hansel Fletcher. Loma Linda is a Seventh-day Adventist educational health-sciences institution in Southern California. It has students from more than 80 countries around the world.

Exposure

The exposure to the exciting world of research created a deep impression on Terry, an impression that focused her energy to the work she is doing today.

She graduated from NCU in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science, Biology (Suma Cum Laude) and an Associate of Science, Chemistry (Magna Cum Laude)

Her dream was to continue studies at Loma Linda as "it's such an awesome and quiet place; and the people are so very supportive."

Terry received the 1999 (- 2005) Graduate School Tuition Waiver Scholarship to Loma Linda University Graduate School. She got the opportunity to study for the Doctor of Philosophy and Molecular Genetics in the department of microbiology and biochemistry and the Center for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Her advisor was Dr. Carlos Casiano.

In April 2005, Terry graduated after several busy years of research, teaching and presentation at seminars. Looking back at those years, she said: "The interaction with other investigators has been most uplifting."

Facilitator's Assistant

In the fall of 2002 she was a facilitator's assistant at Loma Linda in the medical microbiology labo-ratory course in the department of biochemistry and microbiology. Then, in the summer of 2003, she was again facilitator's assistant in the department of biochemistry and microbiology, this time working on laboratory methods in gene transfer and gene expression.

In the fall of 2004 Terry was seminar presenter in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at La Sierra University, a Liberal Arts Seventh-day institution in Riverside, California.

In 2006, Terry worked as a lecturer in dental microbiology in the School of Dentistry at Loma Linda University. Her topic was mycobacteria species and the gram-negative rod bacteria. The co-coordinator was Dr. James Kettering.

Meanwhile she authored several publications and conference abstracts.

She made the National Dean's List at Loma Linda in 2001. In 2003 she received the Basic Sciences Sixth Annual Research Symposium Poster Presentation Award.

More awards

She received the Selma Andrews Travel Award in the department of microbiology and biochemistry at Loma Linda in 2004. Most recently she received the 2007 American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Young Scientist Travel Award.

At this time in her life she is absorbed in reaching her objective which is a tenure-track academic appointment with teaching responsibilities and a research emphasis addressing issues related to diabetes and cancer etiology and therapy.

Now in her second year of post-doctoral training, she said the research team of which she is a part is focusing on two drugs that have the potential to work effectively on diabetes and other serious ailments including high cholesterol. The drug, she says, can target several life-threatening disorders.

"I'm excited to have the opportunity to work on these drugs. They are novel and we think they definitely have great potential," she said.

Although she finds great satisfaction in doing research, Terry has not completely given up the attraction she feels to become a medical doctor - "I'm putting my thoughts together on where I will go to make the greatest impact for good."

One plan that is definitely on her radar is to return to Jamaica to help inspire youngsters to reach their goals. She feels she will reach her own goals and make a positive contribution by the help of "God, in whom I live, and move and have my being."