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MD/PhD trainees participate in first virtual National MD/PhD Student Conference

A number of trainees from Penn State College of Medicine’s MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program took part in the 35th annual National MD/PhD Student Conference, which the organization held virtually in 2020 for the first time due to COVID-19.

Penn State MD/PhD program leaders knew trainees would miss traveling to Colorado to attend the conference. The program usually sends two students a year to the national conference, which aims to connect trainees from across the nation, identify future research-based residency programs and promote the exchange of scientific knowledge with an engaged national community.

After the hosting institution, the College of Medicine’s MD/PhD program had the most registrants for this year’s conference, noted Lizz Bowen, conference organizer. Penn State was able to send 19 trainees to attend the virtual conference. Trainees presented scientific posters, gave scientific talks, participated in national conversations about a variety of topics and met other MD/PhD trainees, faculty and residency directors from across the country.

Carson Wills, a fifth-year Biomedical Sciences PhD student working in the lab of Dr. H.G. Wang, was selected to give a talk at the conference based on the abstract she submitted. Wills was one of three students selected to give a talk in the Cancer Biology category. The title of the talk was “Chemotherapy Promotes Breast Cancer Metastasis Through Extracellular Vesicle Secretion.” She also presented a poster at the conference with the same title.

As described inthe conference program: “Although neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for breast cancer patients with locally-advanced tumors, a subset of patients go on to develop distant metastases following treatment, and evidence suggests that chemotherapeutic drugs themselves may promote metastasis. The goal of this research is to understand how the chemotherapeutic agent Doxorubicin affects the secretion of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles, and to determine how vesicles derived from chemotherapy-treated tumor cells regulate breast tumor growth and metastasis.”

Also, Jasmine Geathers, a third-year graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences PhD program, working in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Sundstrom, presented a talk titled “Fibulin-3 Mutation causes RPE dysfunction in mice and induces UPR and EMT marker expression in vivo.” She received a diversity award to attend the conference.

Mallory Peterson, a third-year graduate student in the Engineering Science and Mechanics program, working in the lab of Dr. Steven Schiff, presented a poster titled “Pediatric Neural MRI Segmentation Toolbox” at the conference. She noted, “the virtual poster presentation was a really great experience; even without in-person interaction I was able to exchange ideas and advice with other MD/PhD students in a productive manner.”

Esther Choi, a first-year Biomedical Sciences PhD student working in the lab of Dr. Nikolay Dokholyan, presented a poster titled “Molecular interactors of toxic SOD1 trimers in ALS pathophysiology.” She noted, “I had a great time at the conference even though it was virtual! The sessions and speakers were truly spectacular and made me excited for the future to attend in person. I presented a poster and it was great time! I had two students at other schools come by and ask great questions! I also enjoyed the student talks. They were inspiring to see the potential work/innovation that is possible! Thank you so much for allowing me to go!”

Daniel Goetschius, a fourth-year graduate student in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Biosciences PhD, working in the lab of Dr. Susan Hafenstein, noted, “a a lot of good information came from breakout sessions with PSTP directors. Limited to eight to 10 students for the first 20 minutes, then were opened up to everyone that was interested. I went to sessions with Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA internal med.”

Stephen Chih, an MD/PhD student in his second year of medical school, noted, “although I did not give a talk or present a poster, I really enjoyed the conference. I thought the topics included at the conference were well-selected (such as ethical challenges with COVID vaccine and diversity within physician-scientists). The logistics of the conference were great as well in that I did not have any trouble navigating their main conference webpage or joining talks/events (the interface was easy to use). Thank you very much again for the opportunity to attend the conference!”

Dr. Robert Levenson, MD/PhD program co-director, noted, “Although students were unable to attend in person, this was a great opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we could send up to 20 students to the meeting since registration costs were discounted, and no travel, hotel and meal expenses were incurred. This meeting allows students to interact with future colleagues, faculty and residency directors, thus building their clinical and research networks at an early stage of their careers.”

He continued, “It is also a great opportunity for our students to learn that they are not alone, and many of the issues they face as physician scientist trainees are shared by other students across the country. Attendance at these meetings serves to empower our students and connect them to their peers in other programs.”

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