Selects 14 Medical Students for Minority Medical Student Award Program

Jun 23

2016

(WASHINGTON – June 23, 2016) The American Society of Hematology (ASH) today announced the names of 14 medical students selected to take part in the 2016 Minority Medical Student Award Program (MMSAP), an eight- to 12-week research experience for first- and second-year students from the United States and Canada.

The MMSAP program encourages minority medical students’ interest in hematology by providing the opportunity to create and implement a hematology-related research project over the course of the summer. Participants will be paired with two ASH mentors: an MMSAP research mentor who will oversee the participant's work and progress during the summer project, and a career-development mentor who will guide the participant throughout their training.

Participants will receive a total support amount of $7,000, which will help cover their research projects and travel expenses to the 58th ASH Annual Meeting in early December, where they will present their research projects during a special session. They will also receive complimentary subscriptions to Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, as well as to The Hematologist, the Society's newsletter, during their medical school and residency years.

Based on the success of the program and ASH’s commitment to attracting underrepresented minorities to the field, the Society will expand MMSAP in 2017 with two new options for recipients. Students will be able to either complete a research project over a flexible 12-month period or commit to a full-time, 12-month research project.

The MMSAP is one of three programs under ASH’s Minority Recruitment Initiative, a series of programs committed to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities training in hematology-related fields and the number of minority hematologists with academic and research appointments.

“The ASH Minority Medical Student Award Program is a wonderful way to expose young and ambitious medical students to hematology and provide them with a support system to ensure their success,” said ASH President Charles S. Abrams, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania. “By facilitating connections between talented students with ASH mentors and providing these trainees with financial support and research opportunities, ASH hopes to foster their continued advancement toward a career in the field.”

The 2016 MMSAP participants and their research topics include:

Recipient	Project Title	Research Mentor	Career-Development Mentor
Tokunbo Adeniyi University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine Chicago, IL	Life beyond sickle cell disease post-transplant: adults with SCD who had an AlloHSCT and their health-related quality of life	Lewis Hsu, MD, PhD Children's Hospital University of Illinois Hospital & Health Systems Chicago, IL	Alexis Thompson, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Chicago, IL
Moriyike Akinosun University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine Chicago, IL	The exercise genomics study	Robert Liem, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Chicago, IL	Toyosi Odenike, MD University of Chicago Chicago, IL
Kelsey Chatman The Ohio State University College of Medicine Columbus, OH	Evaluation of combination epigenetic therapeutics in mantle cell lymphoma	Robert Baiocchi, MD, PhD The Ohio State University Columbus, OH	Leslie Andritsos, MD The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Columbus, OH
Austin Ikechi The Ohio State University College of Medicine Columbus, OH	Post pain symptoms in transplant patients with sickle cell disease	Swee Lay Thein, MB, BS, FRCPath, DSc. Sickle Cell Branch of National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH Bethesda, MD	Deepika Darbari, MD Children's National Medical Center Washington, DC
Ramanjot Kang Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Dayton, OH	The development of autoimmune diseases following HPA-1a alloimmunization in fetal-neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT)	James Bussel, MD Weill Cornell Medicine New York, NY	Mukund Dole, MD Children's Hospital of Dayton Dayton, OH
Serina Lewis Georgetown University School of Medicine Washington, DC	Utilizing pathology informatics for subtyping diffuse large B-cell lymphoma	Christopher Flowers, MD Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University New York, NY	Bruce Cheson, MD Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Cancer Center Washington, DC
Heardley Murdock Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	Investigating DNA methylation to predict outcome in secondary acute myeloid leukemia	Martin Carroll, MD University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	Mortimer Poncz, MD Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA
Arinze Nwokeji The Ohio State University College of Medicine Columbus, OH	Identifying NuRD subunit protein domains Necessary for γ-globin Silencing	Maeda Takahiro, MD, PhD Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School Boston, MA	Sumithira Vasu, MD The Ohio State University Columbus, OH
Israel Orta Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY	The role of red blood cell (RBC) endogenous nitric oxide production as a link between sickle cell RBC and vascular disease	Thomas Coates, MD Children's Hospital Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA	Henny Billett, MD Montefiore Medica Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY
Violeta Osegueda University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA	Effectiveness of tier platelet protocol implementation for critical intracranial hemorrhage	Alyssa Ziman, MD University of California Los Angeles, CA	Susan O'Brien, MD UCI Cancer Center Orange, CA
Yasmin Rawlins Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons New York, NY	Racial and ethnic differences in toxicities of childhood ALL therapy	Deepa Bhojwani, MD The Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA	Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD Columbia University Medicine New York, NY
Gabriel Washington Stanford University Stanford, CA	Analysis of red blood cells after in vitro differentiation of HBB edited hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells	Matthew Porteus, MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine Palo Alto, CA	Arturo Molina, MD Sutro Biopharma San Francisco, CA
Monica Williams The Ohio State University College of Medicine Columbus, OH	Elucidation of immune evasion by acute myeloid leukemia	Michael Caligiuri, MD The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and The James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Center Columbus, OH	Alison Walker, MD The Ohio State University Medical Center Columbus, OH
Carolyn Wright Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	Defining the optimal approach for discontinuing plasma exchange in patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura	Adam Cuker, MD Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	J. Eric Russell, MD University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA

The American Society of Hematology (www.hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. Its mission is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic, and vascular systems by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. The official journal of ASH is Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, which is available weekly in print and online.

CONTACT:

Sara Khalaf, American Society of Hematology
[email protected]; 202-552-4925

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Selects 14 Medical Students for Minority Medical Student Award Program

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