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Jonathan Abraham
When Jonathan Abraham's Haitian family moved from Canada to Queens, New York, he spoke French and Haitian Creole, but very little English. In addition to learning English at his public high school in Queens, Abraham quickly mastered the "universal language" of science.
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Jonathan Abraham
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Current Institution: National Institutes of Health
Photo: Tom Kochel
A high-resolution photograph is available on request.
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His inherent interest in biomedicine increased as he became painfully aware of a misconception, that Haitians were responsible for the spread of AIDS in the United States. "My high school, where at least one-fourth of the students were Haitian, was nicknamed 'AIDS-field' because of this huge misconception," he recalls.
Since then, Abraham, 22, has focused on two career goals: to do research on the medical problems of underserved populations and to educate broader communities about disease, dispelling damaging myths that degrade minorities. "It shocks me that some low-income communities in the U.S., including my own, have rates of infant mortality, TB, and HIV infection comparable to developing countries," said Abraham. "I want to address the prevalence of infectious diseases in underserved settings and also the social stigma brought about by contracting these infections."
Attending Harvard College on a New York Times scholarship and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) undergraduate scholarship, Abraham chose to major in biochemistry. He seized opportunities to work in two labs at Harvard and two more at other research institutions during the summer. One of those opportunities arose from HHMI's Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP), which offers summer research experiences for disadvantaged and minority undergraduates in the labs of HHMI investigators or HHMI professors. Abraham worked in the lab of HHMI investigator Stephen C. Harrison, a structural biologist at Harvard. Under Harrison's guidance, he helped in the ongoing design of novel Ebola virus drugs to block the surface glycoprotein, a protein the virus needs to enter cells.
"Through great mentorship, I was inspired to seek graduate training," Abraham said. After earning a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 2005, Abraham is spending a year conducting research at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, on an NIH undergraduate scholarship. He is doing structural studies of the same Ebola surface glycoprotein that he worked on in Harrison's lab at Harvard. Several universities have accepted Abraham for their M.D.-Ph.D. programs, and he is currently deciding which to attend.
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