Many of UTMB’s medical students haven’t been spending the hot days of summer at the beach. Rather, they spent much of their time inside laboratories conducting research.
The Medical Student Summer Research Program matches students who have successfully completed their first year of medical school with UTMB faculty research mentors for an elective research project. This year, 56 students participated in the two-month program. Lisa Cain, Ph.D., serves as MSSRP director, and Monique Ferguson, Ph.D., and George Kramer, Ph.D., are co-directors. The program coordinator is Driana Urbina.
Ferguson, an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, said this was the first time many of the students had conducted any type of research.
“This program is an excellent opportunity for students to get exposure to working in a laboratory setting so they can decide whether this is something they want as part of their career path,” said Ferguson. “Students start looking at medicine from a different perspective — not just working with patients, but also working in a laboratory and experiencing the science behind the medicine. It’s a bench-to-bedside approach.”
The program ran May 4 through June 26, with students presenting their research projects at a competitive poster forum in Levin Hall during the final week.
Thomas Ksiazek, a professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology, and director of high-containment laboratory operations for the Galveston National Laboratory, served as guest speaker at the closing ceremony, sharing his experiences studying infectious diseases around the world and giving students words of wisdom. He said chance played a large role in his education and the positions to which he was assigned and that his career took several turns to end up where he is today.
“The military played a large role in my career — I spent 21 years with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army,” said Ksiazek. “I didn’t sit down and plot out my career path; rather, it depended more upon dipping my feet in and getting my toes wet in different areas and using those experiences to my advantage and the country’s advantage in the long-run.”
Medical student Athena Zhang decided to dip her toes into research during this year’s MSSRP. Under the guidance of faculty from the Department of Surgery, Zhang studied burn scar assessment and the use of laser speckle imaging to analyze changes in blood flow to burn scars over time. She helped recruit 44 patients with burns covering at least 30 percent of their body for the study.
“This is my first research project and it’s been a great experience,” said Zhang. “It really builds on your prior knowledge, and I’ve learned that I really like the clinical aspect of research because I like having some sort of patient interaction.”
Zhang plans to continue working on the project to get a better understanding of how burns heal and what therapies and long-term medications may be used to improve cosmetic and functional outcomes. She received two awards at a ceremony following the poster session, including “Best Patient Care Poster” and the “Faculty Women’s Caucus Award for Excellence in Research.”
For a complete list of award winners, click here.
