Graduate Fellowships Making An Impact-Josh Laber

Josh Laber
Graduate Research Assistant, supervised by Drs Keith Johnston and Jennifer Maynard
Funded by the Halff Endowment established in 2010

Research Area: Biotechnology

Josh’s work with Professors Johnston and Maynard is developing a new physical form of proteins that could drastically improve treatments for cancer and other diseases, as well as overcome some of the largest challenges in therapeutics: delivering drugs to patients safely, easily and more effectively.

Josh is working on building a platform to deliver monoclonal antibody medications in higher concentrations and lower viscosities, allowing drugs that would otherwise be too viscous to be administered without pain.

“I was humbled and honored to receive the Halff Fellowship,” said Josh. “It has allowed me to concentrate more on my research project and less on finding funding, which could revolutionize the way the majority of protein-based therapeutics are administered.  I am fortunate to work in a great team of knowledgeable graduate and undergraduate students and am very thankful I was given this opportunity.”

In addition to his duties in the lab and in the classroom, Josh also plans monthly department-wide socials for faculty, staff and graduate students. After receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, Josh came to UT Austin in the fall of 2011.

“I wanted to attend UT because of its reputation in the field, the selection of interesting research disciplines offered and the sense of community within the department.”