Student Accomplishments

MSTP and the CWRU School of Medicine provides a training environment and ample opportunities to be prolific in the sciences and active in the community.  Here are just a few of our students' recent accomplishments.

Leadership roles

Bijou Basu, M2 in Genetics & Genomic Sciences, is the co-chair of the Doctors for America Women's Health Workgroup. She participated in the organization's 2020 national conference, moderating the Medical Student Poster Session.

Recent Publications

Jennings Luu, G3 in Pharmacology, published a cover paper entitled, “Epigenetic hallmarks of age-related macular degeneration are recapitulated in a photosensitive mouse model" in Human Molecular Genetics: https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/29/15/2611/5874042?!login-true

Lucie Ahn, G1 in Genetics & Genomic Sciences, published a paper entitled “An epilepsy-associated ACTL6B variant cauptures neuronal hyuperexcitability in a human induced pluripoten stem cell model” in the Journal of Neuroscience Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jnr.24747

Liyan Fan, G4 in Pathology, published a paper entitled "Muscle Krüppel-like factor 15 regulates lipid flux and systemic metabolic homeostasis" in The  Journal of Clinical Investigation:  https://www.jci.org/articles/view/139496

David Sweet, G4+ in Pathology, published a paper entitled "Myeloid Krüppel-like factor 2 is a critical regulator of metabollic inflammation" in Nature Communications:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19760-3

Conferences and Presentations

Willie Miller-Little, G3 in Pathology (ITP), presented his work at the 2019 annual meeting of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society, in Vienna, Austria

Michael McHenry, G3 in Epidemiology & Biostatistics, presented his work at Keystone 2019 Keystone Symposia Conference A3: Tuberculosis: Mechanisms, Pathogenesis and Treatment in Banff, Alberta and at the 2019 American Society for Human Genetics meeting in Houston, TX

Research Grants

Jennings Luu, G3 in Pharmacology, was awarded an F30 from the NIH for “Identification of novel phosphodiesterase-modulating compounds and characterization of associated cytoprotective pathways in light-damaged retina” 

Community Engagement

Bijou Basu, M2 in Genetics & Genomic Sciences, founded the nonprofit No Longer Voiceless in 2020. The organization has expanded to a six-person leadership team and is collaborating with local organizations like InMotion and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center: https://thedaily.case.edu/spartan-showcase-bijou-basu/

Awards and Advocacy

Yi Fan Chen, G1 has been awarded the Harrington Discovery Institute-MSTP Scholar Award. The award recognizes students early in their career whose research has shown innovation and creativity, and the potential for progressing from scientific discovery to a medical therapy.

Uriel Kim, M3 in Clinical and Translational Science and a CTSC TL1 Scholar, received the "Outstanding Trainee: Predoctoral Scholar Award" by the Association for Clinical and Translational Science. Uriel's award includes an honorarium and his highlight video will be featured as part of the virtual Translational Science 2020 joint annual meeting of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR), the Clinical Research Forum, and the PhRMA Foundation.   http://www.actscience.org/ts2020awards

Uriel Kim, M3 (Clinical Translational Science), Andrew Morton, G4 (Genetics & Genome Sciences), and Michael Babinchak, G4 (Physiology & Biophysics) were awarded The 2020 Doctoral Excellence Awards.

Gloria Tavera, M4 in Clinical and Translational Sciences, received the 2020 Kaiser Permanente Medical Student Scholarship, in recognition of commitment to supporting under-served communities. The award totals $5,000 and recipients will be honored at a banquet in San Francisco, CA in September 2020. Recipients are encouraged to complete a clinical elective at a Kaiser Northern California facility between now and the middle of the final year of medical school.

Medical School Graduation Awards 2020

MSTP students were well represented this year at the CWRU School of Medicine Graduation Awards Ceremony

Christian Anderson, Anna Henry-Borton, Alex Gooding, and Joseph Rathkey (M4s) are all recent AOA inductees

Joseph Rathkey received the Martin Wahl Memorial Fund Award

Christian Anderson, Anna Henry-Borton were the recipients of the Max Miller Award

DaShawn Hickman was the recipient of The Betty Jean Fratianne, MD, Student Award; and The Academy of Medicine Education Foundation Award

Michael Glidden received The Minerva and Carl Wiggers Prize in Physiology

Alexandra McMillan was the recipient of The William Bligh-Glover, MD, Memorial Award

Joseph Tanenbaum received the Ivan E. Shalit Prize

PhD Defenses

We have had many students successfully defend their PhD dissertations recently.  Here is a list of those that occurred this spring.

Daniel Leonard,  "Orchestrating PP2A holoenzyme assembly: From normal to abnormal and the therapeutic opportunity in between"

Avery Sears,  "Cryo-EM of the complex between IRBP and a monoclonal antibody"

Match List 2020

Our MSTP students had an incredible year. The key here is not only where they went, but where they wanted to go and whether they had options. First choice was once again the rule rather than the exception. 

Students, if you have something new to add, tell us about it here.