Fresh Ideas

Thinking about the future at Soma Weiss Student Research Day

Sean Fletcher (left) discusses his poster with Maya Harary during the 76th Annual Soma Weiss Student Research Day. Image: Steve Lipofsky for HMS

Sean Fletcher (left) discusses his poster with Maya Harary during the 76th Annual Soma Weiss Student Research Day. Image: Steve Lipofsky for HMS

Harvard Medical School student Camille Mathey-Andrews has launched a study to better understand breast cancer metastasis. She says it might take her a year to explore her conclusions about tumor-derived extracellular vesicles.

Her classmate Ricardo Guerra thinks there could be implications for people with Parkinson’s disease based on his pilot study correlating changes in the brain he has seen on MRIs with changes in patients’ gaits.

Student Colleen Sinnott says she sees more opportunities to use an economic lens to explore issues such as how to maintain quality of life following cardiac surgeries in Rwanda.

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And student Sean Fletcher has progressed from studying the basic science of cancer biology to investigating the psychosocial side of oncology. Fletcher's research involves looking at where people with myelodysplastic syndrome receive end-of-life care, examining how the setting affects their quality of life.

The project left Fletcher cautiously optimistic about removing barriers to hospice care that some patients encounter.

“I am seeing cancer through a new lens,” he said. “This might improve palliative care.”

The four student researchers were among 170 HMS and Harvard School of Dental Medicine students who presented their posters at the 76th Annual Soma Weiss Student Research Day on Jan. 12. From sequencing RNA in single cells to studying culturally tailored cooking workshops for Haitians in Cambridge, the posters spanned a wide range of research topics.

“At the end of the day, a lot of innovation is driven by fresh minds looking at the world in fresh ways.”— Dean Edward Hundert

Standing before their work in the atrium of the Tosteson Medical Education Center, the students were part of a tradition honoring the memory of Soma Weiss, a beloved HMS teacher and physician who died at age 43, leaving a legacy of commitment to student research.

Since 1940, the HMS community has come together every year to celebrate student research, said Ed Hundert, dean for medical education and the Daniel D. Federman, M.D Professor in Residence of Global Health and Social Medicine and Medical Education, in his welcoming remarks for the oral research presentations and the awarding of prizes. The audience included Soma Weiss’s son, Bob Weiss, and his wife, Joyce DiBona, along with student researchers and faculty members.

“It’s always inspirational to see the level of participation at Soma Weiss Day,” said Hundert. “At the end of the day, a lot of innovation is driven by fresh minds looking at the world in fresh ways.”

In the spirit of the day, Hundert announced a new annual scholarship endowed by Martin Prince, the Martin Prince Scholarship for Student Innovation. Prince, an HMS alumnus (Class of 1984) and classmate of Hundert’s, is a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is also chief of MRI at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he divides his time between research and clinical work.

The first recipient of the scholarship was Travis Hughes, who, with Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology mentors Alex Shalek and Chris Love, is working to develop a low-cost platform for single-cell RNA sequencing of cells obtained from low-input clinical biopsies.

Poster prizes were then announced, which followed evaluations by more than 40 judges gathered earlier in other TMEC classrooms.

2016 Soma Weiss Day Student Speakers

Amir Ameri: Survival roles for RagA and RagB in acute myeloid and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias

Jonathan Fisher: Simultaneous mutation detection and RNA-seq in single cancer cells

Margaret Krasne: Barriers to uptake of WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist in five intervention health facilities in phase II of the BetterBirth Trial: a quantitative and qualitative analysis

Winona Wu: The role of intermittent hypoxia in pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

2016 Soma Weiss Day Poster Winners

Elizabeth D. Hay Prize for Basic Science Research

Kathy K. Wang: IL-33 producers are neuro-immune modulators in skeletal muscle

Judah Folkman Prize for Clinical / Translational Science Research

Y. Raymond Shao: Developing preoperative assessments of brain function to improve anesthetic care in elderly patients

Honorable Mention

Victoria Robson: Copy number variation contributes to the phenotypic variability of syndromic Duane retraction syndrome

Robert Ebert Prize for Health Care Delivery Research or Service

Dalia Larios Chavez: Students as health coaches and change agents at Brookside Community Health Center: a tool to improve health outcomes in diabetic patients

Charles Janeway Prize for International Research or Service

Rumbidzai Mushavi: Water insecurity and emotional distress: population-based, mixed methods study in rural Uganda

Leon Eisenberg Prize for Medicine in Society Research

Chloé Powell: Maternal experiences of racial discrimination and offspring sleep in the first 2 years of life