Anani Amouzou is passionate about finding a possible cure for prostate cancer. He was an engineering and pre-med major at GPC, and his studies were funded by the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholars Program (PSLSAMP). The goal of PSLSAMP is to increase the number of minority students receiving undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. GPC is one of eight Georgia institutions in the program.

Amouzou actively pursued and won a 12-week cancer research internship at Clark Atlanta University last summer. He researched how phytosterols, the natural plant compounds found in corn oil, soybeans, tomatoes and nuts, can curb the growth of prostate cancer cells that grow in cholesterol.

Dr. Godwin Ifere was one of Amouzou’s advisors on the Clark Atlanta project. He says Amouzou is “cool-headed, very calm. I believe he has great potential as a scientist.”

Amouzou presented his summer research at the 2009 PSLSAMP Fall Forum at Fort Valley State University. He was the first Georgia Perimeter College student to present research at a state conference.

He was born in Lomé, Togo, and moved to the United States in 1998 to work and save money for college. His native language is French. Amouzou chose Georgia Perimeter College for its small class sizes and strong English as a Second Language (ESL) program. "ESL helped me through my difficulties at speaking English,” he says. He also enjoyed GPC’s cultural diversity.

After graduating from GPC, Amouzou planned to attend Georgia Tech and medical school. He dreams of working with nanotechnology to treat patients. Nanotechnolgy uses tiny machines at the molecular level.