This year, 116 medical, dental, and veterinary students from 47 schools across the country will take a break from memorizing molecular metabolism and studying drug interactions to spend a year in a lab doing hands-on research. The break from regular coursework, funded through a $4 million Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) initiative, is intended to give students an opportunity to immerse themselves in science and consider whether they want to pursue a career as a physician-scientist.
Nearly 500 medical students applied for the research year through the HHMI-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medical Research Scholars and HHMI Medical Research Fellows programs. Both efforts seek to strengthen and expand the pool of medically-trained researchers.
“We want medical, dental, and veterinary students to become immersed in the life of academic science for at least a year. And we hope they get so engaged in the process and life of scientific research that they will decide to continue it for the rest of their lives,” says Peter Bruns, HHMI’s vice president for grants and special programs. “We need more doctors who do basic research to improve human health.”
As part of its commitment to fostering the translation of basic research discoveries into improved diagnoses and treatments, HHMI has developed a range of programs to nurture the careers of researchers who bridge the gap between clinical medicine and basic science. In addition to the programs for medical students, the Institute supports medical training for Ph.D. students in the basic sciences and has made specific efforts to fund top physician-scientists as HHMI investigators.
The medical research scholars and fellows programs are open to medical, dental, and veterinary students enrolled in U.S. schools. Most have completed the second or third year of their professional program when they spend a year working in a lab either at the NIH or at an academic medical center or research university they select. During the last 25 years, more than 2,100 students have participated.
“We’re excited about the continued growth of interest in these programs,” says William Galey, director of HHMI’s graduate and medical education programs. “This shows that more and more of these students value biomedical research and want a chance to work in the lab full-time.”
The HHMI Medical Research Fellowships 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. Each student submits a research plan to work in a specific lab with a mentor they have identified. Since 1989, about 1,200 students have participated.
This year, 74 students from 26 medical schools and two veterinary schools were chosen as fellows from a pool of 274—the largest number of applicants in the history of the program. While most students elect to stay at their home institution to do their research, this year 17 fellows will work in labs at a different school. Their research topics include schizophrenia, wound healing, organ development, and many other important biological questions.
To expand the program, HHMI has entered into partnerships with three foundations that will fund students who have specific research interests. For the first time, HHMI is collaborating with the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF, www.bwfund.org) to support two veterinary students who are doing biomedical research. BWF has a longstanding interest in training scientists who can work on diseases that affect many species. This is the first time that veterinary students have been selected as HHMI-BWF fellows.
“BWF and HHMI have established ties to the academic veterinary medicine community and to veterinarians within the human-oriented research community,” says Victoria McGovern, a senior program officer at BWF. “Our support of the HHMI-BWF fellows underscores the important role that colleges of veterinary medicine have in training students who will be important to the future of human health research.”
"For the advancement of vision-saving treatments, 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 cures for all diseases, and we need to provide the incentives and training that will encourage young doctors to follow a research-oriented career path."
HHMI is also expanding its partnership with the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation (www.ivyfoundation.org) to support five HHMI-Ivy fellows who are doing research on glioma, a deadly and incurable brain cancer. Last year, there were four HHMI-Ivy fellows. The Ivy Foundation is focused on developing better diagnostics and treatments for patients with gliomas.
“These partnerships allow foundations to support top students doing research in their area of interest,” Galey said. “This is an importance chance to expand the fellows program, and we hope more organizations will join us as partners.”
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.
Students selected as research scholars often enter the program with only a general idea of what type of research they would like to do. As soon as they are accepted, they begin researching the more than 1,100 laboratories at NIH. They meet with a number potential mentors before finalizing 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.
This year, 42 students from 28 medical schools and one veterinary school were chosen as research scholars. More than 200 students from 93 schools applied.
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
| 2010-2011 HHMI-NIH Research Scholars |
| Name | School |
| Isaac Abecassis | Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine |
| Leonardo Aliaga | The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine |
| Aaron Besterman | New York Medical College |
| Swaroop Bommareddi | University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine |
| Chad Burk | Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine |
| Bharat Burman | Tufts University School of Medicine |
| Elise Cheng | School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center |
| Donelle Cummings | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Matthew Dallos | Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine |
| Chandan Das | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences |
| Jake Decker | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Matthew Desmond | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA |
| Michael Erkkinen | Dartmouth Medical School |
| Daniel Faden | Boston University School of Medicine |
| Farhoud Faraji | Saint Louis University School of Medicine |
| Rashidah Green | Howard University College of Medicine |
| Rachael Grodick | School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center |
| Tracy Hadnott | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Aditya Halthore | Dartmouth Medical School |
| Jacqueline Herold | Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University |
| Amanda Herzog | University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health |
| Stephanie Histed | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA |
| Maanasa Indaram | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Rajiv Iyer | New York University School of Medicine |
| Grace Kim | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Wei-Chu Lai | New York University School of Medicine |
| Cecilia Larocca | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Philip Lim | University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—New Jersey Medical School |
| Fan Liu | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Andrew McClary | Tulane University School of Medicine |
| Amirali Modir Shanechi | Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine |
| Christopher Morrison | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA |
| Samuel Myerowitz-Vanderhoek | Mount Sinai School of Medicine |
| Quang Nguyen | University of Virginia School of Medicine |
| Toral Parikh | University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine |
| Ralph Peace | North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine |
| Sonya Purushothaman | Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University |
| Sneha Ramakrishna | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Aliye Runyan | University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine |
| Philip Schmalz | Tulane University School of Medicine |
| Angela Shih | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Carol Yan | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine |
| 2010-2011 Medical Research Fellows |
| Name | School | Fellowship Institution |
| Shah Ali | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Allireza Alloo | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Yi An | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Elisa Aquilanti* | Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University | Harvard Medical School |
| Arinola Awomolo | University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford | Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine |
| Xue Bai | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Tatianna Bartch | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine | Harvard Medical School |
| Samhita Bhargava | University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Clifton Brock | University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine | University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine |
| Ethan Brown | Weill Cornell Medical College | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Miguel Cabarrus | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Edmond Chan | University of Cincinnati College of Medicine | Harvard Medical School |
| Linda Chen* | Duke University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Evelyn Cheung | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Sheena Chew | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Alan Chu | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
| Kerry Colby | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine |
| Karen Condon | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Kathleen Cook | New York University School of Medicine | Rockefeller University |
| Margaret Cooke | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Avraham Cooper | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Michael Coulter | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Leah Couture | University of Maryland School of Medicine | University of Maryland School of Medicine |
| Ilka Decker | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Nicholas Dewyer | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
| Daniel Duncan | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Heng Duong | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Ashraf El Naga | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Annie Fang | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Deepa Galaiya | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Erin Gillespie | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
| Adam Gomez | Baylor College of Medicine | Baylor College of Medicine |
| Adele Goodloe | Mayo Medical School | Mayo Medical School |
| Kimberly Kanada | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine |
| Gurvinder Kaur* | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Kathryn Kemere | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Anna Krawisz | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Jared Kushner | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeonse |
| Hanhan Li | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| David Lin | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| James Liu | New York University School of Medicine | New York University School of Medicine |
| Benjamin Lok | New York University School of Medicine | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center |
| Benjamin Macadangdang | Duke University School of Medicine | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA |
| Nina Mann | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Christine McMahon | Duke University School of Medicine | Harvard Medical School |
| Melanie McNally | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Keshav Menon | Indiana University School of Medicine | Indiana University School of Medicine |
| Onyedika Moghalu | Howard University College of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Camilo Molina | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Laura Navarro | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Connor O'Brien | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
| Philip Pauerstein | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Courtney Pendleton* | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Edward Pham | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Kris Prado | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Giulio Quarta | New York University School of Medicine | New York University |
| Ori Rackovsky | Mount Sinai School of Medicine | Mount Sinai School of Medicine |
| Lara Rosenbaum | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Stephen Rosenberg | University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School | University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School |
| Edward Ruane | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Jill Schappa** | University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine | University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine |
| Alison Schram | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center |
| Ryan Schubert | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Stephen Seedial | Weill Cornell Medical College | University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health |
| Bryan Sisk | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Sarah Sunshine*** | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Mamie Thant | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Vanja Varenika | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Meghan Vermillion** | University of Wisconsin—Madison School of Veterinary Medicine | University of Wisconsin—Madison |
| David Voce* | University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine | University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine |
| Chenwei Wu | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Albert Yeh | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Neeha Zaidi | Mount Sinai School of Medicine | Rockefeller University |
| Xiaolong Zhou | Duke University School of Medicine | Harvard Medical School |
*HHMI-Ivy Medical Research Fellow
**HHMI- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Medical Research Fellow
***HHMI-Foundation Fighting Blindness Medical Research Fellow |
Howard Hughes
