Alumni Spotlight: Joeva Barrow

Joeva Barrow“I look forward to the next generation of brilliant scientists the Biochemistry Department will produce in the future.”

This month’s featured alumni is Dr. Joeva Barrow, a 2013 graduate of Dr. Jörg Bungert’s labratory, who is an assistant professor of Molecular Nutrition and Biochemistry at Cornell University. Her primary responsibilities are to maintain a successful extramurally-funded research program as well as to teach graduate level courses in Nutrition and Biochemistry.

Dr. Barrow’s research program centers around mitochondrial biology with a specific focus on mitochondrial disease and associated metabolic disorders such as obesity. We use unbiased high throughput discovery platforms such as small molecule and genome-wide CRISPR editing screens to identify and characterize novel regulatory factors that can be leveraged towards the treatment of metabolic disease.

Joeva describes her educational experience within the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UF as being “paramount to my success. The combination of rigorous coursework, in addition to the advanced laboratory techniques and mentoring that I received from the laboratory of Dr. Jörg Bungert, has shaped me into the scientist that I am today. Ever since receiving the Boyce Research Competition award from the Biochemistry department in 2012, I have strived to achieve the level of excellence that is expected from our Biochemistry alumni. Now many years later, I am still very proud to have come from arguably the best department (!!) in the BMS program.”

Joeva says she lives “happily in Ithaca, New York, with my husband (also a UF alum) and our two children. We miss and think of UF often, especially when it is cold and snowing here! I look forward to the next generation of brilliant scientists the Biochemistry Department will produce in the future.”