UF biomedical researcher receives research foundation professorship
Ayalew Mergia, Ph.D., a biomedical researcher at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has received a UF Research Foundation professorship.
Sponsored by the university’s Division of Sponsored Research, the professorships are awarded to tenured faculty members campuswide for distinguished research and scholarship. The honor includes a $5,000 salary increase each year for three years and a one-time $3,000 award for research support.
Mergia, an associate professor in the college’s department of pathobiology, studies the molecular virology of simian foamy virus. Using mice as animal models, Mergia is researching ways the antiviral gene therapy could be used to prevent simian AIDS in primates and eventually to protect against HIV infection in humans. The simian foamy virus is deemed a desirable way to deliver and express antiviral genes because of its broad host range and its safety and efficiency relative to other gene-transfer vehicles.
The UF Research Foundation professorships were created by the foundation to recognize faculty members who have established a distinguished record of research and scholarship that is expected to lead to continuing distinction in their field.
Mergia has been a member of the UF veterinary faculty since 1993.