Celebrating a Mentor – College Honors Faculty Members With New Award Named for the Late Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, PhD

ANTONETTE BENNETT, PHD ’09, RECALLS STEPPING INTO THE MCKENNA LAB FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A STUDENT IN 2004.

“Everybody was happy, music was playing, everything was clean and organized, people loved what they were doing and they enjoyed being with each other,” she says. “And Dr. Mavis was the lab mom. She really set the course for my career.”

Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, PhD, a UF College of Medicine professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology and the director of the Center for Structural Biology, dedicated 32 years to advancing discoveries in adeno-associated viruses, or AAV, and other parvoviruses at UF before passing away in 2021. In addition to being a globally recognized parvovirus researcher, she demonstrated an unwavering commitment to training the next generation of scientists.

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