The National Student Research Forum held its 56th annual meeting featuring a keynote address from UTMB’s own Ebola expert, Thomas Geisbert, Ph.D., April 22-24. The UTMB forum is hosted by students from the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
At the annual forum, students, interns and residents present their biomedical research papers for critical review by established scientists and their peers. The research can include poster presentations or oral presentations (with manuscripts) on basic sciences, clinical sciences or medical humanities.
Fourth-year GSBS student Stephanie Vega made a poster presentation at the event. “It’s been fun,” she said. As a GSBS student, Vega sometimes feels separated from the students in the SOM. But the forum gave her the opportunity to interact with students from the school.
“This [forum] has given medical students the opportunity to learn what we do in our labs and how it can affect what they do in patient care,” said Vega.
Geisbert spoke to attendees about his groundbreaking work on Ebola. He said he was honored 
to be invited to speak to the students and explained how he got his start in science and Ebola research more than 20 years ago. The world-renowned scientist recently published two papers on his new drug developments with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. Geisbert and Tekmira researchers have been able to prevent nonhuman primates from getting Ebola and successfully treat nonhuman primates infected with the deadly disease. Their work, which was recently published in Nature, has received worldwide publicity.
The forum culminated at the Hotel Galvez that evening where 30 students received awards for their presentations. The NSRF originated in 1960 as a small regional meeting; today, it has grown to a nationally respected event featuring promising young scientists from across the U.S. and abroad.
