Rather than traveling or volunteering this summer, 114 medical, dental, and veterinary students from 47 schools will be diving into intensive, research experiences at top research centers across the country sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

The students in HHMI’s Medical Research Fellows and HHMI-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Scholars programs will spend a year tackling challenging research problems in the laboratories of research scientists at the NIH and across the country.

The two medical education programs, which are part of a $4 million annual HHMI initiative, are designed to encourage a greater number of medically-trained students to become physician-scientists. This is accomplished by giving them a year away from their medical courses and clinical rotations to do laboratory research. “These programs have been shown to have a measurable impact on students’ decisions to enter a research-oriented medical career,” says Sean B. Carroll, HHMI’s vice president for science education.

For the first time, three students in the Fellows program will work with scientists at HHMI’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, focusing on basic neuroscience research and development of new imaging technologies. These students will live on the Janelia Farm campus and work on projects ranging from the neural basis of courtship songs of the fruit fly to developing novel fluorescent probes that can be used in super-resolution optical imaging. “We don’t often get researchers with a medical background at Janelia Farm, and we think this is a good opportunity to expand our interdisciplinary focus,” says Kevin Moses, Janelia’s chief academic officer. “We’re excited to have these promising students here.”

The med fellows and scholars programs are part of HHMI’s larger effort to nurture the careers of scientists who bridge the gap between clinical medicine and basic research. In addition to the programs for medical students, the Institute supports medical training for Ph.D. students in the basic sciences and has made efforts to fund top physician-scientists as HHMI investigators.

The Fellows and Scholars programs are open to medical, dental, and veterinary students enrolled in schools in the U.S. Most have completed the second or third year of their professional education when they spend a year working in a laboratory at the NIH, an academic medical center or research university. During the last 25 years, more than 2,300 students have participated.

“We continue to get four or five applicants for every position, which tells us that these programs are providing a valuable experience for medical, veterinary, and dental students who are considering research as a career,” says William Galey, director of HHMI’s graduate and medical education programs. “And we think these programs represent an important effort in stimulating more physicians to enter academic medicine.”

HHMI Medical Research Fellows

The HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program allows medical, dental, and veterinary students to pursue biomedical research at a laboratory anywhere in the United States except the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Each student submits a research plan to work in a specific lab with a mentor they have identified.

This year, 72 students from 30 medical schools were chosen as fellows from a pool of 244 applicants. Traditionally fellows choose to do research at their home institution, but this year 18 fellows will work in laboratories at a different school. Their research topics include hard-to-treat cancers, infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis, neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, and other important biological problems. Ten students will be working in the laboratories of HHMI investigators, early career scientists, and physician scientist early career awardees.

To expand the program, HHMI has entered into partnerships with several foundations that fund students who have specific research interests. This year, the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB, www.FightBlindness.org) is funding three medical students who are conducting research on causes and therapeutic approaches related to age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease. FFB supports research that will lead to preventions, treatments, and cures for degenerative diseases of the retina, and this is the second year it has collaborated with HHMI to support student research.

“For the advancement of vision-saving treatments from the lab to the clinic, it is essential that we provide research experience for up and coming physicians,” says Stephen Rose, chief research officer at FFB. “Clinical research is critical to the development of treatments and cures for all diseases, and we need to provide the support incentives and training that will encourage young doctors to follow a research-oriented career path to become the next generation of rare, inherited retinal degeneration specialists who will continue to fight these sight-robbing conditions.”

HHMI also has partnerships with the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to support fellowships for veterinary students and the GM Trust to fund students studying Duchenne muscular dystrophy, though neither funded students this year. A new partnership with the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation will fund up to one medical student next year to conduct preclinical research in interventional radiology.

“We are excited to expand the fellows program by partnering with organizations that have the same goal: creating more physician scientists,” Carroll says. “We look forward to creating partnerships with more organizations in the future.”

HHMI-NIH Research Scholars

The HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program was established in 1985 to encourage medical students to pursue research by allowing them to take a year off from their medical studies. The program has since been expanded to include dental and veterinary students. It has enabled about 1,000 students to work in NIH labs.

This year, 42 students from 38 medical schools, two veterinary schools, and two dental schools were chosen as research scholars. More than 175 students applied.

Students selected as research scholars have to identify candidates they are interested in working with from the pool of 11,000 potential NIH mentors, but they do not choose their particular research topic until after they are accepted. After they come to the NIH, the students finalize which project to pursue under the guidance of their NIH advisor and HHMI’s staff. The students are sometimes called “cloister scholars” because they live in apartments or dorm-style rooms in a refurbished cloister on the NIH campus in Bethesda.

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The Howard Hughes Medical Institute plays a powerful role in advancing scientific research and education in the United States. Its scientists, located across the country and around the world, have made important discoveries that advance both human health and our fundamental understanding of biology. The Institute also aims to transform science education into a creative, interdisciplinary endeavor that reflects the excitement of real research. For more information, visit www.hhmi.org

2011-2012 Medical Research Scholars
Name	School
Vinita Alexander	University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Monique Anderson	University of Virginia School of Medicine
Swathi Appachi	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
William Arscott	University of Vermont College of Medicine
Erica Braverman	The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Vivek Buch	The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Benjamin Chaon	University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Viola Chen	Georgetown University School of Medicine
Jason Cho	State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine
Lucy Chow	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
David Clever	Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health
Esmaeel Dadashzadeh	Wayne State University School of Medicine
Brennan Decker	Medical College of Wisconsin
Lynn Frydrych	University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Dennis Hsu	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Emory Hsu	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Blake Jones	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Alexander Kotlyar	Dartmouth Medical School
Ashley Lawler	University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
Evan Lebovitz	Dartmouth Medical School
Janet Lee	Duke University School of Medicine
Talya Lepow	University of Arizona College of Medicine
Kabir Matharu	University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
Nino Mihatov	Duke University School of Medicine
James Morrow	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Seung Ha (Anna) Nam	University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine
Cecilia Ong	Duke University School of Medicine
Stanley Park	Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health
Talia Rosenberg	Yale University School of Medicine
Grace Shih	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Adrienne Smith	Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine
Robert Sonn	State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine
Paul Su	Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Ashley Talley	Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine
Alison Tarbell	University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine
Amiko Uchida	University of Utah School of Medicine
Vadim Villarroel	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Alanna Windsor	Harvard Medical School
Lindsey Wu	Duke University School of Medicine
Donald Ye	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Hesham Zakaria	George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Kreshnik Zejnullahu	University of Massachusetts Medical School

2011-2012 Medical Research Fellows
Name	School	Fellowship Institution
Ameer Abutaleb	University of Maryland School of Medicine	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Marcus Alexander	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Mohammed Aslam	University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio	Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
Dana Balitzer	University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine	University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Jacob Berchuck*	Duke University School of Medicine	Duke University School of Medicine
Sharath Bhagavatula	New York University School of Medicine	New York University School of Medicine
Sarah Bourne	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
Matthew Britton	Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science	Janelia Farm Research Campus
Samuel Brondfield	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Antonios Charokopos	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Ayan Chatterjee	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
YunXiang Chu	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Julien Cobert	Duke University School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
Roxana Daneshjou	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Scott DeRoo	University of Michigan Medical School	University of Michigan Medical School
Christine Eckhardt	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Lilangi Ediriwickrema*	Yale School of Medicine	Yale School of Medicine
Patrick Emelife	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Adam Forshaw	University of New Mexico School of Medicine	University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Jeffrey Futterleib	Yale School of Medicine	Yale School of Medicine
Brandon Gardner	The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine	The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Yaroslav Gelfand	Weill Cornell Medical College	Weill Cornell Medical College
William Gostic	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Matthew Grosso	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University	Hospital for Special Surgery
Eugene Gu	Duke University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Clayton Haldeman	Yale School of Medicine	Yale School of Medicine
Frank Hebroni	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Moira Hilscher	Mount Sinai School of Medicine	Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Benjamin Himes	Yale School of Medicine	Yale School of Medicine
Grace Hsieh	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Antony Hsieh	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas/Southwestern Medical School
Christopher Jackson	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Arman Jahangiri	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas/Southwestern Medical School	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Deeptee Jain	Duke University School of Medicine	Duke University School of Medicine
Tom Ju	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas/Southwestern Medical School	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas/Southwestern Medical School
Brian Kalish	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Sophia Kamran	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Kai Kang	Weill Cornell Medical College	Weill Cornell Medical College
Vivek Kanumuri	University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School	Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Jesse Karmazin	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Jerard Kneifati-Hayek	Weill Cornell Medical College	Hospital for Special Surgery
Martin Krupa*	University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine	University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Wen-Shin Lee	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Alexandra Livanos	New York University School of Medicine	New York University School of Medicine
Christopher Lord	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Preethi Mani	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Joel Martin	Duke University School of Medicine	Duke University School of Medicine
Michael (Tre) Martyn	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Alexander Marzuka	Yale School of Medicine	Yale School of Medicine
Akshitkumar Mistry	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Shane Morrison	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Carson Moseley	University of Alabama School of Medicine	University of Alabama School of Medicine
Laura Ostapenko	Dartmouth Medical School	Harvard University School of Public Health
Joseph Oved	New York University School of Medicine	New York University School of Medicine
Alec Palmerton	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Babita Panigrahi	Yale School of Medicine	Janelia Farm Research Campus
Samira Rathnayake	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Jarred Reed	Duke University School of Medicine	Duke University School of Medicine
David Roy	Weill Cornell Medical College	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Alexander Sheu	Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine	Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine
Valeriy Shubinets	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Lauren Smith	Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine	Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine
David Soleimani-Meigooni	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine	University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Yash Somnay	University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health	University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Adria Suarez	Duke University School of Medicine	Duke University School of Medicine
Andrew Sung	University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine	Janelia Farm Research Campus
Reyna Swift	University of Washington School of Medicine	University of Washington School of Medicine
Rabi Upadhyay	University of Massachusetts Medical School	Harvard Medical School
Meghan Woolley	University of Utah School of Medicine	University of Utah School of Medicine
Karen Yan	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford University School of Medicine
Alvin Yu	Harvard Medical School	Harvard Medical School
John Zampella	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
*Foundation Fighting Blindness