Department Summer Medical Student Researchers

This summer 21 medical students joined us for short-term mentored research experiences with faculty members under the Shapiro Summer Research Program, T32 grants, and T35 grants. Learn what they studied below.

Andre Obua (Mentor: David Al-Adra, MD, PhD)
Project: Exploring the Effects of Cytokine Administration on Liver Allografts During Normothermic Ex-Vivo Liver Perfusion (NEVLP)

Jayne-Norah Ntambi (Mentor: William Burlingham, PhD)
Project: Responses to Non-Inherited Maternal Antigens (NIMA): A Comparison of Immune Responses in Families from Mukono, Uganda To Those in the Midwest US

Joanie Figueroa (Mentor: Nadine Connor, PhD)
Project: Quantification of Lingual Muscle Plasticity

Vik Patel (Mentors: Catharine Garland, MD, Delora Mount, MD)
Project: Feeding Outcomes Following Mandibular Distraction Osteogenesis in Pierre Robin Sequence

Meghan Cusak (Mentor: Luke Funk, MD, MPH)
Project: Differences in 30-day Outcomes Following Intraoperative Provocative Testing in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Tetyana Osadchuk (Mentor: Brett Michelotti, MD)
Project: To Operate or Not: An Assessment of Operative Indication After Distal Radius Fracture Using X-rays and CT Scan in the Same Patient

Christopher Glover (Mentor: Angela Gibson, MD, PhD)
Project: Molecular Signatures of Cellular Injury and Regeneration in Burn Tissue

Kush Patel (Mentors: Hee Soo Jung, MD, Sarah Sullivan, PhD)
Project: A Gap Analysis of Simulation Training in Medical Education for Students with Physical Disabilities

Ainsley Timmel (Mentors: Jonathan Kohler, MD, and Brooks Rademacher, MD)
Project: The Effect of Clinical Case Management on Quality of Care, Patient Outcomes and Adherence to Follow Up on a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Service

Sarah Beilke (Mentor: Amy Liepert, MD)
Project: Barriers and Facilitators of Physician Engagement in Health Policy and Advocacy

Kyle Williams (Mentor: Amy Liepert, MD)
Project: Outcomes in Acute Necrotizing Pancreatitis

Deena El-Gabri (Mentor: Kristin Long, MD)
Project: Assessing the Utility and Effectiveness of Stop the Bleed Training in Rural Kenya

Phuoc Pham (Mentor: Jon Odorico, MD)
Project: Investigating Effects of BMI and Pre-op Insulin Requirement on the Outcomes of Pancreas Transplant

Catherine Jensen (Mentor: Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS)
Project: The Emotional and Informational Needs of Thyroid Cancer Patients: An Analysis of Online Patient Forums

Stephen Chen (Mentor: David Schneider, MD, MS)
Project: Optimizing Levothyroxine Dose Adjustment After Thyroidectomy with a Decision Tree

Sophie Shogren (Mentor: Gretchen Schwarze, MD, MPP)
Project: Surgeon Reflections on the Use of a Question Prompt List by Patients Considering High-risk Operations

Samuel Koebe (Mentor: Amber Shada, MD)
Project: Current Practice Patterns for Primary Umbilical Hernia Repair in the United States

Yoseph Semma (Mentor: Girma Tefera, MD)
Project: Evaluation of Vascular Surgery Procedures and Clinical Outcomes at Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Alexandra Mechler-Hickson (Mentor: Susan Thibeault, PhD, CCC-SLP)
Project: Characterization of Toll-like Receptors in Human Vocal Fold Tissue and Human Epithelial Cells

Cristina Fischer (Mentor: Emily Winslow, MD)
Project: Evaluation of a Newly Developed Consultation Process and its Effect on Patient Experience

Nadeem Bandealy (Mentor: Emily Winslow, MD)
Project: Patient Satisfaction Across Specialty and Primary Care Clinics