The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded fellowships to 66 medical and veterinary students that will allow them to spend a year in a laboratory working on a research project that each student proposed. The new medical fellows come from 34 schools across the United States and are supported by the HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program, a $3 million annual initiative designed to develop the next generation of physician-scientists in the United States.
“The HHMI Med Fellows Program is one of the few in the nation that enables MD and DVM students to engage in very high quality research for an entire year,” said David J. Asai, senior director in science education at HHMI.
“This engagement is perhaps the best way for talented students at this stage in their training to understand the powerful opportunity that emerges at the intersection of medicine and laboratory research. We hope that each of the Med Fellows seriously considers pursuing a career as a physician-scientist,” Asai said.
The fellowships permit the students to take a break from their medical and veterinary school courses, and spend the year conducting basic, translational or applied biomedical research at academic or nonprofit research institutions anywhere in the United States except the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland or other federal agencies.
The students applied with mentors of their choice, and submitted a research proposal. Nineteen fellows will do research in the labs of HHMI scientists, including two who will work with researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
Each medical fellow receives $41,000 in grant support, and fellows are eligible to apply for a second year in the program. This year, 13 fellows from the 2015 class will be supported by HHMI for an additional year, making it the largest class of second-year fellows in the program’s history. The program usually averages six second-year fellows per year.
Jacob Basham, a medical student from the University of Tennessee, is a second-year fellow from the class of 2015. He spent last year conducting research on tumor immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“My first fellowship year showed me not only the practical and technical aspects of planning and performing complex experiments, but also how my chosen field moves as papers are published revealing new information,” he said. “I gained a true appreciation for thinking long-term about a project and how to adapt as new data was gathered.”
Basham decided to postpone his return to medical school, and will continue on for a second year of laboratory research at St. Jude.
“The single most important thing for me when I was considering the second year was what I would eventually be doing someday as a principal investigator. I wanted the opportunity to see the full cycle of scientific research - from conception to publication,” said Basham.
“This second year will allow me to expand on my current data, gather new technical skills, paint a more clear picture of the phenomena I am observing in the lab, and bring it all together as a contribution to the biomedical community in the form of a publication.”
Patrice Witschen, a fellow at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, will also stay on for a second year in the program.
“After graduating from veterinary school, I would like to enter either a veterinary pathology or oncology residency program,” she said.
“A second year of research training will prepare me for the required research projects within these programs and will allow me to integrate research more seamlessly into my future career as a clinician-scientist. Because I came into this program with little research training, I feel that a second year of research will be instrumental as I develop my career path.”
The group of second-year fellows also includes a student who will be spending an additional fellowship year at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH), an independent research institute established in Durban, South Africa through the collaborative efforts of HHMI and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Six fellows in this year’s class of 66 initial awardees will be supported by HHMI’s funding partners: Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF), Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), the Duchenne Research Fund (DRF), and the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation (SIRF).
The program has funded more than 1,700 students since its launch in 1989, and is one of the few privately funded programs in the nation that sponsor year-long fellowships for medical, dental and veterinary students. HHMI received 195 applications for this year’s program, up from 187 in the previous year.
2016–2017 Medical Research Fellows
Name | Fellowship Institution | School |
Melissa Abel | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
Hena Ahmed | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
John Andrews Funder: CURE |
Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Thomas Binns | Janelia Research Campus | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine |
Jae Eun Choi | University of Michigan Medical School | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine |
Megan Clark Funder: BWF |
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine | University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine |
Joseph Dardick | Albert Einstein College of Medicine | Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
Joanna Dong | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
Teresa Easwaran | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Indiana University School of Medicine |
Gabriel Friedman | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
Gunsagar Gulati | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
Nicholai Henry | Harvard Medical School | Morehouse School of Medicine |
Daniel Hettel | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
Daniel Hoffman | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
Melody Hu | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Momodou Jammeh | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
Samuel Jang | University of Alabama School of Medicine | University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health |
Adam Johnson | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Weill Cornell Medical College |
Angad Jolly | Baylor College of Medicine | Baylor College of Medicine |
Theodora Karagounis | Rockefeller University | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
Pooja Karukonda | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
Ahmed Kashkoush | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
Ryan Kiefer Funder: SIRF |
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania |
Alexander Kokini | Jackson Laboratory | Indiana University School of Medicine |
Benjamin Kress | University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry | State University of New York Upstate Medical University |
Maria Kryatova | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
Tambudzai Kudze | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Chiraag Kulkarni | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine |
Jerry Lee | Harvard Medical School | Duke University School of Medicine |
Erik Levinsohn | Harvard Medical School | Yale School of Medicine |
Spencer Lewis | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
Laura Lu | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
Richard Maduka | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania |
Thiagarajan Meyyappan | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
Diana Miao | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
Mark Michael | Rice University | Baylor College of Medicine |
Julio Montejo | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Nathanael Moore | Harvard Medical School | Indiana University School of Medicine |
Christopher Moutos | Salk Institute for Biological Studies | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine |
Andrej Nedic | University of Michigan Medical School | Wayne State University School of Medicine |
Gabriel Neves | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
Anthony Nguyen | Duke University School of Medicine | Tufts University School of Medicine |
Neal Nolan | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Rebekah Packer Funder: BWF |
University of California-Berkeley | University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine |
Fatemeh Parvin-Nejad | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
Julia Ransohoff | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
Mondira Ray | Carnegie Mellon University | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
James Reed | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
Ashley Riley | Stanford University School of Medicine | Indiana University School of Medicine |
Tolulope Rosanwo | Harvard Medical School | Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine |
Yohei Rosen | University of California-Santa Cruz | New York University School of Medicine |
Andrew Sohn | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University |
Anne Song | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
Matthew Stern Funder: CURE |
Emory University School of Medicine | Emory University School of Medicine |
Rukayat Taiwo | Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine | Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine |
Rohit Thummalapalli | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
Anthony Tran | Harvard Medical School | Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University |
Wai Lok Tsang | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
Travis Urban | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of Texas Medical Branch |
Kathy Wang Funder: DRF |
Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
Kathy Williams | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | Cooper Medical School of Rowan University |
Chung-an Wu | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
Danwei Wu | Duke University School of Medicine | University of Central Florida College of Medicine |
Jason Ya | Stanford University School of Medicine | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
Hui Yang | Janelia Research Campus | Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
Xiaojie Zhang | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
2015–2016 Medical Research Fellows funded for a second year in the program
Name | Fellowship Institution | School |
Sriram Anbil | Harvard Medical School | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio |
Jacob Basham | St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital | University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine |
Charles Dai | Cleveland Clinic Foundation | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
Kow Essuman | Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine | Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine |
Chelsea Feldman | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
John Huizar | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
Terrence Jones | KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) | University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine |
Tolani Olonisakin | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
Thomas Pak | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine |
Joseph Park | Harvard Medical School | Boston University School of Medicine |
Niema Razavian | University of Michigan Medical School | University at Buffalo, State University of New York School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
Ashan Veerakumar | Emory University School of Medicine | University of Maryland School of Medicine |
Patrice Witschen | University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine | University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine |