Third-year medical student Larissa Dixon’s journey to becoming a physician is reaching far beyond UCF’s College of Medicine campus — all the way to Peru.
After a three-week clinical experience at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas – Escuela de Medicina in Lima, Peru, last year, Dixon was motivated to pursue — and recently earned — a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center Fellowship to further her studies at Peru’s Asociación Civil Impacta Salud y Educación (IMPACTA). A former middle school science teacher, Dixon is the first UCF student to earn the prestigious year-long fellowship and one of nearly 100 students selected worldwide this year.
“When I was in Peru, I thought it was such a great experience and I wanted to know how I can come back and do more research,” she says. “I had no idea how I would be able to do that, but I knew the first step was speaking to doctors and researchers about their own career trajectories and how they became involved in global health. From there, I learned about and pursued the Fogarty program.”
Combating Antibiotic Resistance at Home and Abroad
Dixon’s project will examine how Peruvian clinics distribute preventative antibiotics, specifically a newer one known as doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (DoxyPEP), and how patients use them to stave off sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
She will survey healthcare providers and patients to understand what is needed for safe and effective implementation of DoxyPEP.
Dixon hopes her findings will better inform global efforts to reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance, where bacteria gradually adapt to overcome medical treatments.
“As places start to adopt guidelines, I’m hoping my research can better inform how and when these measures should be used,” she says.
Unlike in the U.S., patients in Peru often get antibiotics without a prescription despite regulations requiring one. so studying the outcomes in both countries gives health care providers a fuller picture of how to combat drug resistance.
Antibiotic resistance can arise when antibiotics are widely used, creating a challenge for new prevention strategies. Dixon’s research focuses on balancing the promise of DoxyPEP, which has been shown to lower rates of STIs in certain populations, with the risks of increasing antimicrobial resistance. By engaging both patients and clinicians, the study aims to identify gaps in care and guidance that can inform educational efforts, strengthen antibiotic stewardship, and support safe and effective STI prevention.
“Antimicrobial resistance is such an important topic because once our antibiotics stop working, it could basically take us back to an era without antibiotics where essentially any minor infection could actually significantly harm you,” she says. “It’s really important for all countries to work together and monitor antibiotic use and adopt evidence-based guidelines.”
Elena Cyrus, associate professor of population health sciences, leads the emerging global health study abroad program that led to Dixon’s fellowship. She says that Dixon’s research directly addresses a global need and that it is relevant to populations here in the U.S.
“Antibiotic resistance, the emergence of new STI’s and the overuse of antibiotics are all relevant issues,” Cyrus says. “There are ongoing discussions to develop new antibiotics and new diagnostics to detect when overuse can be prevented. Larissa’s project is something that will allow this to be explored comprehensively. Her findings could then be translated to populations in the U.S., and they can help with overuse of medications here at home.”
UCF Taking a Leading Role on the Global Stage
Dixon’s achievement is extraordinary not only because of the intense competition for fellowship awards, but also because UCF is not yet part of an NIH-supported global health consortium of universities that supports the fellowship. To be considered for a Fogarty International Center Fellowship, scholars must be sponsored by one or more consortium faculty researchers.
In addition to creating a research project worthy of NIH funding, Dixon had to seek out mentors and sponsors from across the U.S. and abroad.
She persisted, reaching out to the dozens of universities in these consortia to advocate for herself.
Dixon is being mentored by Jenell Stewart at the University of Minnesota through the Northern Pacific Global Health Leadership, Education and Development for Early-Career Researchers consortium, in partnership with Cyrus. She is also receiving mentorship from Javier Lama and Alexander Lankowski in Peru through IMPACTA.
Cyrus commends Dixon for her determination and for her ability to navigate the challenging path to earning the fellowship.
“I’m so very excited for Larissa. She’s a prime example of how the College of Medicine global health program has exceeded what was imagined,” Cyrus says. “Fogarty is an incredibly prestigious fellowship that Larissa secured in a relatively short period of time — from when she learned about it in study abroad last June to earning the fellowship award this summer, which is phenomenal.”
Through the increased visibility gained by Dixon’s fellowship, Cyrus hopes UCF’s global health presence will be significantly elevated enough for consideration into an NIH global health consortium. That distinction would accelerate the university’s medical research enterprise and allow UCF students to seek mentorship directly through UCF, she says.
“One of our goals is to be part of a consortium and spearhead one in the southeast region in the U.S.,” Cyrus says. “We strive to make UCF’s College of Medicine a flagship institution, so this was really a dream of ours. With this, we start to build a foundation that supports groundbreaking research such as Larissa’s project, by other UCF trainees and faculty.”
“With this, we start to build a foundation that supports groundbreaking research such as Larissa’s project, by other UCF trainees and faculty,” — Elena Cyrus, associate professor of population health sciences
Translating Experience Into Practice
Cyrus, who earned a Fogarty Fellowship herself in 2012, says Dixon’s experience will further propel her into becoming a leader in global health.
“Fogarty helps you as a first-time principal investigator and introduces you to an elite network of scientists from all over the world,” Cyrus says. “She’ll get a breadth of exposure that will supplement and enhance her UCF training.”
Dixon’s long-term goal is to divide her time between clinical work and research abroad while teaching and mentoring future students in the U.S. She plans to become an infectious disease physician specializing in HIV and STI research, combining clinical care with global health research focused on prevention, treatment and antimicrobial resistance.
“I think with medicine, you learn how to really impact someone’s life on an individual level,” Dixon says. “Just having that Fogarty fellowship under my belt opens up so many global connections for me.”
About the Fogarty International Center:
According to the NIH, the Fogarty International Center is dedicated to supporting global health research conducted by U.S. and international investigators, building partnerships between health research institutions in the U.S. and abroad, and training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs.
