The Drukier Prize honors an early-career pediatrician whose research has made important contributions toward improving the health of children and adolescents. Dr. Su, chief of the Human Immunological Diseases Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is being recognized for her innovative research into rare pediatric immunodeficiency diseases and translating findings into potential treatments for these patients. This work also extends to more common diseases such as allergies and viral infections.

“Dr. Su is a talented clinician-scientist whose discoveries have furthered our understanding of the genetic causes of rare pediatric immune diseases,” said Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine. “Her innovative research using cutting-edge approaches and efforts to translate her work into new treatments has offered hope to countless children affected by these disorders and their families. For her commitment to children’s health and tireless work to advance the field of pediatric research, we are pleased to honor Dr. Su with this year’s Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research.”

“We are thrilled to be recognizing Dr. Su with this award,” said Dr. Gale Drukier and Weill Cornell Medicine Overseer Ira Drukier, who together in 2014 established the prize. “Dr. Su’s dedication to bettering the lives of young patients through her groundbreaking pediatric research into DOCK8 immunodeficiency syndrome and other rare immune disorders is exceptional. We are proud to have the opportunity to showcase the inspiring physicians and scientists making a true difference in children’s health, offering a bright future for the next generation.”

“Dr. Su’s research illustrates the value of understanding the basis of rare hereditary immune disorders,” said Dr. Virginia Pascual, the Drukier Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health. “Not only has her work helped to guide treatment for children with these diseases, but she has also advanced the field of immunology through her fundamental insights into how the human body protects itself from infection. Her research has the potential to help children worldwide and the Drukier Institute is pleased to honor Dr. Su for her vital contributions to pediatric research.”

Dr. Su’s research brings together clinical information with technological developments in genomics, biochemistry and molecular biology—such as sequencing all the protein-coding regions of the human genome—to identify gene mutations associated with diseases that affect the immune system. The findings may lead to improved diagnosis and better treatments.

Dr. Su’s work has provided critical insights into DOCK8 immunodeficiency syndrome, a rare immune system disease that is difficult to diagnose because it masquerades as more common conditions, such as respiratory infections, middle ear infections, eczema, food allergies and skin infections. Children with DOCK8 immunodeficiency syndrome, however, reach a point at which infections of the skin and respiratory system worsen over time, and they are at increased risk for some forms of cancer. In 2014, Dr. Su and her colleagues showed that when the DOCK8 protein is missing, as occurs in these patients, white blood cells that travel to the skin and normally fight off viral infections there catastrophically die, impairing immunity within the skin. Some children with DOCK8 immunodeficiency syndrome have been successfully treated with bone marrow transplants, and Dr. Su is collaborating with other teams at NIH to determine which type of transplant—from matched siblings, matched unrelated donors, or half-matched donors, such as mothers or fathers or half-matched siblings—offer the best treatment.

Recently, Dr. Su and her colleagues identified a rare mutation in the gene that produces a protein called MDA5, which plays an important role in fighting viral infections. The faulty MDA5 protein results in a markedly increased susceptibility to infection by human rhinoviruses, the main causes of the common cold. For most people, rhinovirus infections lead to minor illness, but for people with severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health problems, rhinoviruses can cause serious complications. Insights from Dr. Su’s research may lead to new strategies for treating patients with severe rhinovirus complications and inadequate MDA5 responses.

The Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research was established in December 2014 as part of a $25 million gift to Weill Cornell Medicine. The gift also created the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health – a premier, cross-disciplinary institute dedicated to understanding the underlying causes of diseases that are devastating to children. As part of its mission, the institute awards the prize, which carries an unrestricted honorarium, annually to recognize the innovative work done by young investigators in pediatric research.

Dr. Su received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in 1990. She went on to earn a medical degree and a doctorate in pathobiology, both from Brown, in 1998. After completing an internship and residency in pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, she joined NIAID in 2002 as a clinical fellow in allergy and immunology. After completing a research fellowship in NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunology in 2007, she was appointed as a clinical investigator and chief of the Human Immunological Diseases Unit in the Laboratory of Host Defenses at NIAID. In 2016, she was named senior investigator and chief of Laboratory of Host Defenses at NIAID. In 2017, Dr. Su became senior investigator and chief of the Human Immunological Diseases Section in the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology at NIAID.

Dr. Su has received several awards and honors, including the NIH Director’s Award in 2010 and NIH Merit Awards in 2015 and 2018, and the Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award in 2018.

A previously unknown type of T lymphocyte, a class of white blood cell, contributes to the development of an autoimmune disease, called lupus, which causes the immune system to attack healthy tissues and organs and leads to chronic inflammation, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

The study, published Nov. 26 in Nature Medicine, suggests that targeting this newly discovered class of T cell, or its biochemical signals, may be a good strategy for treating lupus. Current treatments do not cure the disease and often cause broad immune suppression that increases the risk of infection and cancer.

“We’re very interested in exploring the possibility of developing new treatments based on this finding,” said senior study author Dr. Virginia Pascual, the Drukier Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health and the Ronay Menschel Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The most common form of lupus, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is thought to afflict roughly 150,000 to 300,000 people in the United States. It is more prevalent among women and people of African, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian descent, and while it is often considered an adult disease, it occurs relatively frequently in children—for whom it tends to take a more severe course. The disease generally involves attacks on the body’s own tissues by antibodies and other immune elements, with symptoms ranging from skin rashes and fatigue to seizures and severe heart and kidney problems.

Investigators still do not know how lupus arises and why antibodies that react with DNA are so prevalent in this disease. Much of the research has focused on a class of T cells called T follicular helper cells, which are produced at higher levels in lupus patients and help activate many of the immune cells, called B cells, that go on to produce tissue-attacking antibodies. Dr. Pascual and colleagues also have shown in prior studies that these lupus “autoantibodies,” when they encounter immune cells called neutrophils, can cause the neutrophils to release damaged DNA. This appears to set up a vicious cycle of intensifying immune activity, as other immune cells called dendritic cells react to the damaged DNA as if it were from viruses.

For the new study, the scientists looked more closely at what these dendritic cells do when they encounter this type of damaged neutrophil DNA, taken in this case from lupus patients. The key finding was that the dendritic cells somehow activate T cells in the vicinity to become “helper” T cells, of a previously unseen type that the scientists propose calling TH10 cells. These helper T cells go on to stimulate antibody-making B cells, and they do so by producing a unique combination of signaling molecules: the immune protein IL-10, and a small molecule called succinate, which is better known as a byproduct of cellular energy production.

“This is a B-cell activation pathway that has never been described before,” said Dr. Pascual, who has received a research grant and consulting honorarium from Sanofi-Pasteur.

The scientists found relatively high levels of the new type of helper T cell in lupus patients’ blood and also in the kidneys of those affected by a serious lupus-related kidney disorder called proliferative lupus nephritis. Receptors for succinate are particularly common on kidney cells and there is evidence that their overstimulation contributes to other, non-lupus forms of kidney disease. Dr. Pascual and her colleagues therefore suspect that while the newly discovered helper T cells may harm lupus patients’ kidneys by increasing the production of lupus autoantibodies, they may also cause direct harm to the kidney by producing succinate.

The scientists are now examining the possibility of blocking succinate signaling or some other element of this new B-cell activation pathway to ameliorate lupus nephritis and other aspects of this autoimmune disease. “Our study opens up a range of potential targets for treating lupus,” Dr. Pascual said.

Three distinguished Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists, Dr. Daniel Fitzgerald, Dr. Francis Lee and Dr. Virginia Pascual, have been inducted into the Association of American Physicians (AAP).

Considered one of the top honors in the fields of health and medicine, election to the AAP  recognizes physician-scientists who have demonstrated excellence in the pursuit of medical knowledge and in the advancement of basic and clinical science discoveries and their application to clinical medicine.

Dr. Dan Fitzgerald

Dr. Dan Fitzgerald, director of the Center for Global Health and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, was recognized for his work evaluating and defining the optimal way to treat people with HIV/AIDS in resource-poor countries. His pioneering research in developing nations such as Haiti and Tanzania has provided rigorous scientific evidence for making antiretroviral therapy available worldwide. He also proved that treating people with HIV early, as soon as they test positive for the disease, decreases mortality four-fold and tuberculosis incidence two-fold. As a result, the World Health Organization changed international HIV treatment guidelines and early treatment became the worldwide standard of care. 

“To be invited to join the ranks of leading physician-scientists is a real honor,” Dr. Fitzgerald said. “It the importance of conducting the highest level of clinical research in resource-poor countries and developing strategies that have had a significant impact on improving care globally. People in underdeveloped countries deserve the same level of scientific effort that we undertake in developed countries.”

Dr. Francis Lee

Dr. Francis Lee, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Professor of Molecular Biology in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, was recognized for his work combining molecular neuroscience with psychiatry to study anxiety disorders. His achievements include pioneering novel research strategies aimed at performing genetic mouse model studies in parallel with human behavioral and neuroimaging studies to identify how individual genetic variation contributes to risk and resilience for mental illness. Dr. Lee's findings inform how clinical treatments can be optimized based on the biological states of the developing brain, especially with regards to patients with anxiety disorders and mood disorders.

“I am incredibly honored to be elected to the Association of American Physicians,” Dr. Lee said. “As one of few psychiatrists in the organization, I look forward to mentoring and encouraging future physician-scientists to join the field.”

Dr. Virginia Pascual

Dr. Virginia Pascual, the Drukier Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health and the Ronay Menschel Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, was recognized for her cross-disciplinary research into the underlying causes of pediatric diseases caused by an altered immune system, and her work to find new cures. Focusing on systemic-onset juvenile arthritis, which causes joint inflammation and other symptoms in young children and had no effective therapies, one of her major contributions was identifying a molecule as the underlying driver of the disease. Through a pilot study and then larger clinical trials, her team demonstrated that a drug developed to treat adults could halt inflammation and stop disease progression in a majority of children. As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug as a treatment for the disease.

“The Association of American Physicians is a very prestigious organization, dating back to the 19th Century, and I’m very proud to become a member,” Dr. Pascual said. “I look forward to encouraging younger colleagues to follow the path of patient-oriented research and I would be delighted to help identify potential inductees in the future.”

The AAP has more than 1,700 active members and approximately 600 emeritus and honorary members from the United States, Canada and other countries. New members are elected in a competitive process by current members. Drs. Fitzgerald, Lee and Pascual were among 61 new inductees honored at the AAP’s annual meeting in April in Chicago.

A new cellular messenger discovered by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists may help reveal how cancer cells co-opt the body’s intercellular delivery service to spread to new locations in the body.

In a paper  published Feb. 19 in Nature Cell Biology, the scientists show that a cutting-edge technique called asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) can efficiently sort nano-sized particles, called exosomes, that are secreted by cancer cells and contain DNA, RNA, fats and proteins. This technology allowed the investigators to separate two distinct exosome subtypes and discover a new nanoparticle, which they named exomeres.

“We found that exomeres are the most predominant particle secreted by cancer cells,” said senior author Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology, and a scientist in the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center and the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medicine. “They are smaller and structurally and functionally distinct from exosomes. Exomeres largely fuse with cells in the bone marrow and liver, where they can alter immune function and metabolism of drugs. The latter finding may explain why many cancer patients are unable to tolerate even small doses of chemotherapy due to toxicity.”

Exomeres clock in at less than 50 nanometers in diameter, compared with small exosomes (Exo-S), which range from 60 to 80 nanometers in diameter, and large exosomes (Exo-L), which are 90 to 120 nanometers in diameter. “Exosomes and exomeres also have different biophysical characteristics, such as stiffness and electric charge, that likely affect their behavior in the body,” said lead author Dr. Haiying Zhang, an assistant professor of cell and developmental biology in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. “The more rigid the particle, the easier it is likely taken up by cells, rendering exomeres, which are stiffer than exosomes, the more effective messengers of transferring tumor information to recipient cells.”

Exosomes and exomeres also differ in the way they influence cancer. Exomeres carry metabolic enzymes to the liver, an organ that is central to the breakdown of drugs into nontoxic forms. The finding suggests that exomeres target the liver to “reprogram” its metabolic function to favor tumor progression. Exomeres also carry blood-clotting factors to the liver, where they may prohibit the liver's normal function in regulating clotting. By contrast, the study suggests that Exo-L may promote metastasis to lymph nodes, while Exo-S may support distant metastasis.

“Cancer is truly a systemic disease that requires multi-organ involvement to progress,” Dr. Lyden emphasized. “Our finding that tumor cells secrete these three distinct nanoparticles, that then target cells in different organs reflects this important aspect of the disease.”

Cornell University has filed a patent application on the technology that is described in the Nature Cell Biology paper. Researchers will now study how these different types of messengers develop, exactly what molecules each of them carry, and what their functions are at their target organ sites. “Understanding these characteristics may help scientists better understand how exomeres and exosomes help cancers grow and spread to other organs, as well as what role they may play in other diseases,” Dr. Zhang said.

Exosomes and exomeres are also detectable in bodily fluids such as lymphatic fluid, which might allow development of biomarkers for early detection of cancer or other pathological conditions. “Based on our findings, the next phase will be to measure exosomes and exomeres in plasma samples to help predict organs that may be targeted for metastasis during tumor progression,” said Dr. Lyden. “This will help us better understand the biology of cancer, guide therapeutic decisions and develop novel therapies.”

“Lastly, the technique we have pioneered will likely be a valuable tool for scientists and clinicians studying the biology of complex nanoparticle populations,” Dr. Zhang said, “and may aid in the development of diagnostic tests using them as biomarkers.”

Dr. Pascual received the award, which includes a $150,000 monetary prize, at FOCIS 2017, the Federation of Clinical Immunological Societies’ 17th annual meeting in Chicago. The award recognizes a significant, new insight or discovery with the potential to change the thinking about lupus and generate advances in diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

“I’m very honored to have been selected by my peers, and am committed to understanding the disease and bringing new therapies to children with lupus,” said Dr. Pascual, who was recruited as the Ronay Menschel Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that occurs when a person’s immune system attacks healthy organs, tissues and cells. It leads to chronic inflammation in various parts of the body, including the skin, kidneys and brain. Although lupus is found mainly in women of childbearing age, an estimated 5,000-10,000 children are diagnosed with the disease in the United States.

In the past, most research by scientists on lupus has focused on what is happening to the immune system at the time of flares. While this is valuable knowledge, it has been unsuccessful in explaining why a patient with lupus might feel well one day and then have flares the next day, Dr. Pascual said.

To better understand how lupus flares develop, Dr. Pascual will analyze blood samples taken from children with lupus on a frequent basis, even in between clinical visits, using innovative sequencing technology. By doing so, she hopes to capture what is happening at the earliest stages of disease activity – weeks or even months before symptoms appear.

“If we can identify what is changing in the immune system of each patient before symptoms appear, we will be able to develop personalized treatments,” Dr. Pascual said. “The ultimate goal is to prevent a flare from happening.”

By Anne Machalinski 
Photos By John Abbott

On a Tuesday in early June, just days before summer break, dozens of third-year medical students gathered in the Belfer Research Building to present findings from independent research projects they’d been working on since February. One student compared the use of palliative care in oncology in the United States and India; another presented findings on a promising biomarker that might allow physicians to track the progression of a pediatric brain tumor; and a third described her investigations into whether large polyps are a risk factor for metastatic colorectal cancer.

The poster session was the culmination of the first part of a six-month, dedicated research block that all Weill Cornell Medical College students now participate in during their third year. Begun in 2014, this capstone requirement is called the Areas of Concentration (AOC) program. It requires students — with the exception of MD-PhDs — to pick an area in which they’d like to gain in-depth knowledge, then complete original research related to it before graduation under the tutelage of a one-on-one mentor. “The more we can educate students in how to conduct original research,” says Dr. Anthony Brown, an associate professor of cell and developmental biology and the director of medical student research, “the more likely our graduates will be to challenge the status quo, make advances in their fields and become better doctors.”

The AOC is the latest in a continuum of changes to the curriculum at Weill Cornell Medical College — which, like many of its peer institutions, has shifted away from a classroom-focused system for the early years of medical school. Today, medical educators generally accept that students should be exposed to clinical work as early as possible. Protected research time, a relatively new concept in medical education, is also considered a benefit for physicians-in-training. Although many schools only require a few weeks or months, often broken up by other coursework, Weill Cornell Medical College — which previously didn’t require any research at all — opted to add six months. Students now do four months of research in the spring of their third year and two in the fall of their fourth, then report their work in a scholarly paper. “As a med student, I’ve sometimes felt like I’m memorizing all this information and just trying to retain as much as I can,” says Marta Dzyadyk ’18, who presented research on beneficial microbes that live in the gastrointestinal tract. “But the AOC program allowed me to ask a research question and think a little more creatively. I loved being in a basic science lab and taking ownership of my project.”

Professor of Medicine Dr. Andrew Schafer, who is the program’s director, stresses that in no way is the AOC intended to pressure students to choose a specialty prematurely, or push them into full-time research. Instead, he says, it gives medical students a chance to do what PhD candidates have been doing all along: thinking about the big picture, and creating — rather than just absorbing — knowledge. “A lot of medicine today ends up being very technical,” he says, “but we want all of our graduates, including doctors going into clinical practice, to maintain a scholarly and scientific perspective in their careers.” This means continuing to ask fundamental questions that might advance clinical standards; working with scientists to translate promising research into improved treatments for patients; and maintaining strong ties with a scholarly scientific community, like the one that the AOC program invites students to join. “Medical school is the perfect time to ingrain this out-of-the-box way of thinking,” Dr. Schafer says, adding that the AOC also builds confidence, grounds students in the fundamentals of the research process and strengthens their CVs, giving them a boost when they apply for fellowships and residencies.

An Evolving Educational Landscape

Introduced in the first weeks of medical school, the AOC program starts by linking students with one of four “exploratory advisers”: Dr. Brown (who works with students wanting to focus on laboratory research); Dr. Mark Pecker, clinical professor of medicine (clinical research); Dr. Madelon Finkel, professor of clinical healthcare policy and research (global and public health, health policy, and population research); and Dr. Schafer, who takes students who are undecided. As students work through their foundational science classes, they periodically meet with their adviser to pinpoint their choice from a list of about 50 areas of concentration including nanomedicine, communication disorders, geriatrics and addiction medicine. Their adviser also helps them find a faculty mentor, who will work with them on the scholarly project they propose in the fall of their third year. Dr. Brown notes that after having completed 12 months of clinical clerkships, most students are ready to slow down and think creatively — a reprieve that the research block, which begins in February, provides. “Students look at this as a breath of fresh air in what is an otherwise very stressful curriculum,” he says. “They take advantage of what is essentially a giant block of unstructured time, and enjoy the process of creating knowledge.”

Vince Raikhel ’18 (center) with mentors Dr. Susan Ball (left), and Dr. Milagros Silva

For Sydney Ariagno ’18, a Dallas native who came straight to medical school from her undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis, the AOC program was a major reason she chose to attend Weill Cornell Medical College. She conducted neuropsychology research in college, studying biomarkers that turn up in the blood of pediatric patients after a concussion to see how they correlate with cognitive function later on. At Weill Cornell Medical College, she decided to try basic science research, to learn new skills and see if she enjoyed the process. Dr. Schafer guided her toward cancer research; then Dr. Brown introduced her to her eventual mentor, Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After learning about his work on exosomes — microparticles released by tumor cells — she knew she’d found the right fit. “Dr. Lyden’s research interests are very much in line with what I was hoping to focus on,” says Ariagno, who plans on going into pediatrics or pediatric oncology after graduation. “Our meeting went so well that I didn’t need to consider working with anyone else.”

The project Ariagno focused on during her research block — which she has extended into a full year, after which she’ll return to her medical studies — is on medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. Along with Dr. Lyden and co-mentor Dr. Praveen Raju, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Ariagno is looking at whether exosomes released by this tumor could be detected by a blood test — not only to diagnose it, but to monitor whether it has grown or spread after treatment. “This is a really collaborative project; I get to work with both of my mentors equally,” says Ariagno. “Dr. Lyden’s lab is focused on general cancer biology and the mechanisms of cancer progression, and Dr. Raju focuses on medulloblastoma and brain tumors. It’s been illuminating to see both the broad and more narrow questions play out in the research, and consider how this lab-based work could lead to a safer, non-invasive way of diagnosing and monitoring kids with this type of tumor.”

Dr. Andrew Schafer (left), with students Caitlin Gribbin ’18 (center) and Aditi Gupta ’18

While AOC leaders say it’s too early for a comprehensive assessment of the program’s benefits, it seems to be paying off. This year, five third-year students, including Ariagno, received Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowships, each providing $32,000 to support a year of research. Two more third-years received other prestigious fellowships, one from the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation and another from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. In the past, only one or two students per year were likely to receive such honors, Dr. Schafer says. “We can’t take full credit for this increase — but we did get students to start thinking about research early, made them aware of these opportunities, helped them with their applications and urged them to apply,” he says. “This is an early indicator of success that shows we’re on to something.”

Shooting for the Stars

While many incoming students are unsure about their future specialty, Tim Donahoe ’19 stands out for his singular focus: he wants to be an astronaut. Even before he matriculated, he outlined what he hoped to do in aerospace medicine and reached out to Weill Cornell Medicine’s three astronaut alumni. He also identified a faculty mentor: Dr. Christopher Mason, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics who is one of the lead investigators of the NASA Twins Study, which studies how long-term space flight affects the human body (in astronaut brothers Scott and Mark Kelly) and is developing new technology for DNA diagnostics in space. After Dr. Mason eagerly took him under his wing and they brainstormed a research outline, Donahoe set up a meeting with Dr. Schafer to describe his plan. “He was a little surprised, because no student had visited him yet — and I came in with this whole plan that I was super excited about,” says Donahoe. “But he was also extremely supportive, and within a month the school launched an aerospace medicine and space genetics area of concentration.” The summer before his third year, Donahoe spent a week shadowing an astronaut who’s also a physician at the Johnson Space Center — an experience facilitated by Dr. Ellen Baker, (MD ’78), a veteran of three space missions. Now, he’s deciding whether to spend his upcoming research block studying genomic changes in astronauts during space flight or comparing zero-gravity exercise regimens — knowledge that’s meant to elucidate what would happen to the human body on a long-duration mission to Mars, for example.

Eugene Carragee ’18 (left) and Tom Donahoe ’19 with mentor Dr. Chris Mason (right)

While such research may seem distant from the practice of medicine on Earth, it provides practical insights for future doctors, says Eugene Carragee ’18, an aspiring anesthesiologist who also is pursuing an aerospace AOC. “Learning what happens when someone goes into space, and the compensatory mechanisms that kick in because of a micro-gravity environment, has helped me understand much better how the body works and how the organ systems interact with one another,” says Carragee , who is working with Dr. Mason on the Twins Study. “I see this in-depth knowledge as a bridge between what I’ve done in this concentration and what I’ll pursue as a specialty.”

Joining a Research Community

When AOC leadership unveiled the program in 2014 after a long planning process, Dr. Schafer feared it would be challenging to find faculty willing to participate. But he had the opposite problem: there was a rush of volunteers. Among them was Dr. Harjot Kaur Singh, an assistant professor of clinical medicine who leads the infectious diseases AOC with Dr. Laura Kirkman, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Clinical Scholar in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The pair welcomed six students by inviting them to participate in division meetings and to share their work at a gathering two days after the poster session. “We thought this was a great opportunity — not only for students to showcase what they’ve done, but also for the infectious diseases group to offer mentorship, support and advice,” Dr. Singh says.

For Dzyadyk, the third-year student who studied gut microbes as part of the infectious diseases AOC, the program’s biggest benefit has been developing close relationships with her mentors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Dr. Eric Pamer, an infectious diseases physician, and Dr. Miriam Torchinsky, a fellow. Both not only guided her through her research, but shared details about their professional paths and advised her on topics like identifying her own interests and choosing a specialty. Says Dzyadyk: “Graduating from medical school, we’ll earn an MD — but there’s still so much more to learn about medicine, ourselves and what we want to do in our careers.” Vince Raikhel ’18 had a similarly powerful mentorship experience — halfway around the world. After spending two months shadowing a palliative care physician in New York, he spent six weeks doing the same in Vellore, India. From both, he learned the importance of slowing down to get to know the patient and involving families in the medical decision-making process, an experience he calls “very inspiring.”

In addition to faculty mentorship, a key part of the AOC is that students help and support each other. At biweekly meetings during the research block, groups of seven to 10 students brainstorm solutions to research problems, with a faculty facilitator on hand to offer advice. Natalie Wong ’18 needed that peer input — as well as guidance from her mentor, Dr. Heather Yeo, an assistant professor of surgery and the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Healthcare Policy and Research/Clinical Evaluation — when she realized that her proposed project wasn’t going to work out. Wong originally set out to study complications related to colorectal cancer screening procedures using a massive national database, but realized that the dataset was missing a lot of variables that she needed to do the correct analysis. So, working with her mentor, she shifted to another question, for which the data was more helpful: are large polyps a risk factor for metastatic colorectal cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes? Physicians working with Dr. Yeo’s group are keenly interested in the answer, which could impact clinical practice. Says Wong, who’s continuing her research this fall: “Hitting roadblocks and working through them has been an important part of my experience.”

This story first appeared in Weill Cornell Medicine, Vol. 16. No. 3