Research
Meet a Medical Scholar: Maddy Ball
Jul. 11, 2022—M3 Maddy Ball traveled to Barcelona, Spain, for a year-long research project By: Lexie Little Maddy Ball is no stranger to travel. A native of Mill Valley, California, just outside of San Francisco, she moved nearly 3,107 miles to Massachusetts, where she attended Tufts University. Flying over rigid mountain peaks, plains, rolling hills and valleys,...
M2 Harrison Thomas leads the race
May. 19, 2022—Second-year Vanderbilt University School of Medicine medical student Harrison Thomas served as this year’s Shade Tree Trot 5K Run/Walk director, leading an effort to raise $46,500 for the student-run free clinic By: Lexie Little Harrison Thomas felt a tug in his right hip as he raced past Southeastern Conference opponents on a cross country course....
Q&A with MSTP Lizzie Flook (PhD ’21, MD ’22)
May. 9, 2022—After seven years in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Dr. Lizzie (Hale) Flook prepares to graduate with her MD this Friday. The University of Miami alumna, who played collegiate volleyball, earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University last year, studying stress-related brain regions during abstinence in individuals...
M4 Patrick Donegan forms friendships, future at VUSM
Mar. 10, 2022—Fourth-year MD student Patrick Donegan recently matched into ophthalmology for his upcoming residency. Before he leaves Vanderbilt, he shares reflections on life with his classmates and friends. By: Lexie Little In an alternate universe, M4 Patrick Donegan might have worked as a marine biologist. The California native could have spent his days around Huntington Beach...
A heart for Vanderbilt: M1 Sydney Nelson reflects, looks forward
Mar. 3, 2022—As she sat in hospital rooms at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as a child, Sydney Nelson dreamed of being a doctor like the faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine By: Lexie Little Sydney Nelson walked into a patient exam room with Dr. Thomas Doyle, the Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Family...
Medical Scholars: William Quach explores a different approach
Sep. 28, 2021—by Lexie Little When William Quach (MD ’23) arrived at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine after studying biology at the University of California San Diego, he brought research experience with him. Quach, an aspiring anesthesiologist, examined how a specific protein traditionally known to play a role in the death of cells actually helped ovarian and...
2020 MSTP grad Kevin Graepel shares his four-year experience researching coronaviruses
Jun. 8, 2020—by Emma Mattson Kevin Graepel describes his early experience of the COVID-19 pandemic as a “rapidly escalating sense of dread.” Graepel, who graduated from VUSM in early May with an M.D./Ph.D. could be considered something of a coronavirus expert. He spent his Ph.D. years researching in Dr. Mark Denison’s lab, studying how a specific coronavirus...
Across the Atlantic and Back Again: How Adrian Cadar’s cardiac research took him to Germany and what he brought back with him
Feb. 6, 2020—by Emma Mattson Adrian Cadar’s passion for heart research began in an unexpected place: the fishing pond. “When I was a kid, I fished a lot with my dad. Fishing was boring, but the coolest thing was when we cut the fish open, we could actually see the heart beat for the first time,” Cadar...
My Research Year Out in the Medical Scholars Program
Oct. 7, 2019—by Stephanie Hadley, MS4 At the beginning of my third year of med school, I began to seriously consider applying for a research year. Having gone straight from college to medical school, I thought that doing a year of research before starting residency would be a good opportunity to gain experience in a different field...
The Year-Out Experience: A Year of Research through the Doris Duke Clinical Research Mentorship
Jul. 16, 2018—Due to my interest in research as a career, I decided to pursue a year-out from medical school to gain necessary research skills to be successful as a clinical researcher. I was fortunate enough to have found a mentor in Dr. DeBaun, who has extensive research and mentorship experience in sickle cell disease. By doing...