By Myshake Abdi ’16

Over the summer I was fortunate enough to spend six weeks in Cleveland, OH participating in the Summer Medical/Dental Education Program. There are multiple SMDEP sites all over the U.S. at varying dental and medical schools; the site I chose to attend was centered in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

At home at CWRU

Over the course of six weeks I had the privilege of attending multiple lectures, ranging from different groundbreaking studies in the medical field to insight on the process of applying to med school. Aside from guest lecturers we also were required to attend class. Each student was assigned a math, writing, physics, and chemistry course, and the classes we were placed in were contingent upon the classes we had already taken during the school year. In addition to class work, every student was assigned a public health group. Over the course of the program these public health groups were responsible with finding and proposing practical solutions to public health disparities, then presenting their topics in the form of a 20 to 30 page paper as well as a power point presentation.

Myshake (3rd from right) with his public health group

However, the main experience that makes this program unique is the shadowing experience. Each SMDEP student, at the CWRU site, was given the ability to shadow 3-4 doctors in fields such as neurosurgery, plastic surgery, internal medicine, neurocritical care, and emergency care. This, in my opinion, was perhaps the one of the more useful experiences, in terms of understanding the day to day procedure of different doctors.

For more information about the program visit the page: http://smdep.org/

Or contact me at: AbdiM16@hsc.edu

Drake Bishop, a recent graduate in H-SC’s Class of 2014, has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Dorothy Middleton Memorial Scholarship at Eastern Virginia Medical School.  This prestigious award is given to one student from each year’s entering class of medical school and provides a full scholarship that is renewable for all 4 years of medical school.  Since its establishment in 2011, two H-SC students have received the award (Barron Frazier ’12 was the recipient in 2012).  Drake, a biology major and Summa Cum Laude graduate with Departmental Honors at H-SC, received the Samual S. Jones Phi Beta Kappa Award for Excellence in Research for his Senior Honors Project on melanoma-associated suppression of dendritic cells.  Since graduating, Drake has been a participant in the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters Summer Scholar Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School, where he has conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Amy Tang on regulation of the K-RAS signaling pathway in lung cancer.  He will begin his first year of medical school at EVMS this fall!

by Travis Goodloe ’16

I have a summer research internship at the Center for Reproductive Medicine here in Mobile working with Dr. George Koulianos, MD and Dr. Suzanne Degelos, Ph.D.  The Center specializes in many facets of reproductive medicine including several methods of in vitro fertilization as well as intrauterine insemination (IUI) in addition to general reproductive healthcare for couples and patients facing reproductive difficulties or infertility.  My internship involves working as a lab tech with lab  director Dr. Degelos by assisting in egg retrieval and embryo transfer procedures along with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which is the method used to fertilize eggs in vitro in the lab.  Along with my lab tech responsibilities, I have been given my own project involving some data analysis and bioinformatics in order to help the Center publish an abstract that they have been trying to get out for several months now.

In the IVF world, a new technology known as physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection (PICSI) has emerged since about 2012 which utilizes a special dish coated in media containing the protein hyaluronan.  All normal morphological and functional  sperm have hyaluronan binding receptors on their heads while eggs possess hyaluronan protein on their outer surface that bind during natural fertilization.  Thus, PICSI dishes possess hyaluronan that allows for sperm binding in the dish and thus an embroylogist to select the best quality sperm for injection.  My project has included analyzing all the patient records since 2012 when PICSI was first used here at the Center and comparing pregnancy outcomes to ICSI patients from the same time period.  Many fertility clinics across the country are moving to this new method but unfortunately the sample size here at the Center as well as in other studies from around the country are not large enough to produce statistically significant results that prove PICSI is more effective and provides higher clinical pregnancy rates and more importantly successful delivery rates than standard ICSI. 

To learn more about the science behind my project, check out http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3545641/

by Evan Harris ’16

I am currently participating in a six week summer internship with the East Carolina Heart Institute under the supervision of Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood ’72, the founder and director of the Institute.  Aaron Gilani ’15 will work with Dr. Chitwood in July.  In this internship, I observe and shadow Dr. Chitwood and several other doctors who work under him or alongside him.  Whether it’s through clinics, labs, or OR cases, I am directly exposed to the everyday work of thoracic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, and other physicians who deal with thoracic issues.  I witness open heart valve repair/replacement surgery, robot assisted minimally invasive valve repair/replacement surgery, and other thoracic surgeries.  This internship allows students to catch surgeons in action while asking questions regarding anatomy, physiology, or just the everyday struggles and rewards of being a physician.  I recommend that any student with an interest in pursuing a career in medicine should apply for this amazing opportunity.  Dr. Chitwood and his staff love to teach students, and Dr. Chitwood loves his alma mater, Hampden-Sydney College.

Alumni connections: Evan Harris ’16 with Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood ’72, founder and director of the East Carolina Heart Institute

The Da Vinci surgical system used in the labs at ECU robotics lab