The Perseverance of UH-Downtown's Akif Uzman Wins the Day

(Houston, Texas, June 7, 2007) The good news just keeps coming! UHD has received a $500,000 grant from the Department of Defense (DOD), jointly funded by the Army Research Office and Air Force Office of Scientific Research, to equip the new Integrative Molecular Life Sciences Laboratory Suite (IMLSL) (North-6, One Main Bldg). Dr. Akif Uzman, associate professor of biochemistry, is the principal investigator. This grant will allow the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment for biotechnology and environmental biology research by at least six Natural Science faculty and more than 25 students.

"It took five tries over a four-year period," Uzman says, "but we finally got it!"

Competition was fierce, but Uzman kept fine-tuning the proposal, adding new elements, reflecting changes at UHD that expanded the effort. Then - jackpot!

"Over the ten years that I have been at UHD," Uzman notes, "a lot of people have been working to build a bona fide, high-end research facility, and this new lab and the grant to support it are the culmination of our efforts and dream for undergraduate science education and research at UHD. This is state-of-the-art lab equipment. Our IMLSL will look like a research lab that you'd find at the medical center."

The grant will allow the purchase of cell culture hoods, facilities that let you grow cells and work with them in a sterile environment. It will also purchase high end microscopes that will let you visualize cells in ways that have only been possible in the last ten years, along with instruments that let you measure very tiny amounts of nucleic acids.  

UH-Downtown is a public university of nearly 12,000 students, offering a wide variety of bachelor’s degrees, as well as master’s programs in criminal justice, professional writing, security management and teaching. One of four distinct universities in the UH System, Houston’s Downtown University is nationally recognized for its student diversity, wireless campus, outstanding academic opportunities and productive community partnerships. At UHD, the emphasis is on excellence in teaching and student success.

Please use UH-Downtown, UHD or University of Houston-Downtown when referring to our university.