By Michelle Jaffee
In the McKnight Brain Institute lab of Habibeh Khoshbouei, Ph.D., Pharm.D., sustenance for student assistants comes in many forms: From homecooked nutritious snacks to a devoted crew of mentors, the lab’s focus is on fueling both body and mind.
And so a big celebration was in order this week when the name of undergraduate student Devon Borg appeared in Science magazine for taking the top prize in the Brain and Behavior category of the 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science Student E-poster Competition.
“He works so hard and he’s so motivated,” said his mentor Leah Phan, a Ph.D. student who joined the Khoshbouei Lab in 2017. “It is so rewarding to see him be recognized for all his hard work.”
According to the AAAS, winning presentations were selected for superb originality and understanding. Borg won first place in the undergraduate category for his abstract titled “Parkinson’s Paradox: α-Syn’s Selective Strike on SNc Dopamine Neurons over VTA.”
His project examined alpha-synuclein, a protein that affects specific neurons in the brain in Parkinson’s disease, as part of research intended to guide future therapies to prevent those neurons from dying.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment, particularly for an undergraduate student, and reflects the high caliber of research being conducted at the MBI,” said Khoshbouei, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at UF’s College of Medicine who this year won the Faculty Doctoral Mentoring Award and also was named a 2025 University of Florida Research Foundation Professor.
“Devon’s story offers a powerful message of hope and inspiration,” Khoshbouei said. “It demonstrates that dedication and hard work leads to remarkable achievements.”
It was through UF’s Neuroscience Club that Borg, a 21-year-old junior from Fort Myers, first learned of the Khoshbouei Lab two years ago. After hearing a presentation by Phan and Adithya Gopinath, Ph.D., a Gator NeuroScholar, Borg applied to be a volunteer lab assistant.
“They did an undergraduate roundtable where they invited graduate students and undergrads to come,” said Borg, a health science major in UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Luckily for me, Leah and Adithya were both there, so I got to hear a little bit about their experience and the rigor in the lab, and I wanted the same thing for me.”
Now, his long-range goal is to work on effective treatments or cures for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
As for his first-place win, Borg said the honor is undoubtedly a shared one.
“I don’t know where I would be without Dr. Khoshbouei and Leah,” he said. “I really appreciate all of the work they’ve put in to help me be where I am today. I don’t think it would’ve been possible without them.”
To Khoshbouei, it’s a two-way street: The process of teaching is critical to sharpen understanding for the mentors.
Weekends for her often mean time to cook for the lab; she especially enjoys making Persian dishes to bring in for her lab staff, which spans from undergrads to postdocs.
“Scientific progress is not measured solely by data and discoveries,” she said, “but by the people we lift up along the way.”