Summary
Sixty-eight medical and veterinary students from 37 different schools across the country will participate in HHMI's year-long Medical Research Fellows Program.
Highlights
- The students will conduct a full year of mentored biomedical research training as part of the annual $2.8 million Medical Research Fellows Program.
- Five physician-scientists who are program alumni will serve as mentors to medical fellows in the new class.
- The program has funded more than 1,600 students since it was established by HHMI 26 years ago.
HHMI has selected 68 top medical and veterinary students from 37 different schools in the United States to conduct full-time biomedical research in its Medical Research Fellows Program. The $2.8 million annual initiative is designed to develop the next generation of physician-scientists by giving the students a full year of mentored research training with some of the nation’s top biomedical scientists.
This year, five physician-scientists who are program alumni will serve as mentors to medical fellows in the new class. One of those mentors, Daphne Haas-Kogan, was a member of the inaugural class of Medical Research Fellows in 1989. “Given the mentorship I received as an HHMI Medical Fellow, I cannot imagine a career that did not revolve around being a mentor to future physician-scientists,” said Haas-Kogan, who is now a professor of Radiation Oncology and Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. In July, she will become chair of the department of Radiation Oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, and a professor at Harvard Medical School.
“Little brings me more pleasure than to sit down with a student, trainee or young faculty member, and discuss their research interests, personal goals, and career plans. My year as an HHMI Medical Fellow during medical school truly changed my trajectory as a translational scientist and infused me with the enthusiasm that I still hold for medicine, science, and teaching,” she said.
The HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program allows medical, dental, and veterinary students to pursue 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 fellows put their medical school coursework on hold, and spend a year immersed in basic, translational or applied biomedical research. This year, 187 students from 76 institutions applied to the program. Each student applied with a mentor of his/her choice and submitted a research proposal.
HHMI investigator Vivian Cheung will be mentoring a fellow in her lab at the University of Michigan. “Medical school curricula alone do not equip students with enough basic biology to find answers that promote health and combat disease,” said Cheung. “The HHMI Medical Fellows Program fills this gap and is a model for educating physicians who will be ‘fluent’ in basic science and therefore bridge discoveries to health.”
Twenty-two medical fellows will work in the laboratories of HHMI investigators, and one student will work with a researcher 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.
Eight of the 68 fellows will be funded by HHMI’s partner organizations this year: the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF), Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF), and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF).
Six students from the current class of Medical Fellows will be supported by HHMI for an additional year in the program.
The Medical Research Fellows Program has funded more than 1,600 students since it was established by HHMI 26 years ago.
2015–2016 Medical Research Fellows
| Name | Fellowship Institution | School |
| Sriram Anbil | Harvard Medical School | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio |
| Nicholas Andresen | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine |
| Courtney Baker | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine |
| Leandra Barnes | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Jacob Basham | St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine |
| Joseph Bayne | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
| Tedi Begaj Funder: FFB |
Harvard Medical School | University of Massachusetts Medical School |
| Caitlin Bell | Harvard Medical School | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine |
| Harjus Birk | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Elizabeth Buss | Harvard Medical School | Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University |
| Emily Chang Funder: FFB |
Baylor College of Medicine | Baylor College of Medicine |
| Elizabeth Chen | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Charles Dai | Cleveland Clinic Foundation | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Mai Dao | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Allison Dobry | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| James Drake | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
| Kow Essuman | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
| Jacqueline Estevez Funder: AGA |
Stanford University School of Medicine | Boston University School of Medicine |
| Chelsea Feldman | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Daniel Firl | Harvard Medical School | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Tianjia Ge | Stanford University School of Medicine | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
| John Huizar | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Soyun Hwang Funder: OREF |
Mayo Medical School | Mayo Medical School |
| Sally Ingham | UT Southwestern Medical School | University of Nebraska College of Medicine |
| Christopher Jensen | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Terrence Jones Funder: HHMI/K-RITH |
K-RITH | University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine |
| Vishesh Khanna | Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Arin Kim | Harvard Medical School | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
| Hannah Laurence Funder: BWF |
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine | University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine |
| Daniel Leonard | Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Brian Li | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Daniel Lia | New York University School of Medicine | New York University School of Medicine |
| Cesar Marquez | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Jonathan Massie | New York University School of Medicine | New York University School of Medicine |
| Gwendolyn McGinnis | Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine | Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine |
| Suzanne Michalak | Harvard Medical School | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine |
| Maryam Mohammed | The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine | The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine |
| Martin Mwangi | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA |
| Tolani Olonisakin | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Oscar Padilla | California Institute of Technology | Tufts University 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 |
| Marcelina Perez | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Warren Pettine | Stanford University School of Medicine | University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine |
| Jose Porras | The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth |
| Briana Prager | Cleveland Clinic Foundation | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University |
| Niema Razavian | University of Michigan Medical School | University at Buffalo, State University of New York School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Nathaniel Robinson | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Jessica Ruiz | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
|
Alireza Samiei |
Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Nicholas Scanlon | Harvard Medical School | University of Alabama School of Medicine |
| Montgomery Simms | Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Sumi Sinha | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |
| Nathanael Smith | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | Meharry Medical College |
| Matthew So | University of California, San Diego | Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science |
| Evelyn Song | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine |
| Kun Wei Song Funder: CURE |
Duke University School of Medicine | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Eric Trac | Stanford University School of Medicine | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Jack Turban | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Ashan Veerakumar | Emory University School of Medicine | University of Maryland School of Medicine |
| Julia Wagner | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
| Jake Wang | Yale School of Medicine | Yale School of Medicine |
| Noah Williford | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine | University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine |
| Patrice Witschen Funder: BWF |
University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine | University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine |
| Wonhee Woo | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine | State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine |
| Amy Xu | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
| Daniel Yang | Harvard Medical School | Yale School of Medicine |
| Xiao Zhu | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
2014–2015 Medical Research Fellows funded for an additional year in the program
| Name | Fellowship Institution | School |
| Leonel Ampie | Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine | Georgetown University School of Medicine |
| John Bui | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Benjamin Cocanougher | Janelia Research Campus | University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry |
| Shawn Loder | University of Michigan Medical School | University of Michigan Medical School |
| Jong Park | Harvard Medical School | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Ryan Park | Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School |