15th Annual Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS)
By Kevin Zhang (G2) and Kaitlin McKernan (G3)
The Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS) annual conference was hosted by the Vanderbilt University MSTP on September 21st– 22nd. SEMSS is an American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) regional meeting that aims to bring together physician-scientists, residents, and MD, MD-PhD, and undergraduate students to promote mentorship and information on the career path as well as provide many opportunities for students to present their scientific work. This year’s SEMSS was the first in-person conference hosted by Vanderbilt since 2018! We had over 250 participants representing over 70 institutions, making this the largest SEMSS ever. The theme of this years’ SEMSS was “Bench to Bedside: Leading in Science in Medicine,” inspired by the leadership experience of our two keynote speakers.
The conference kicked off on Saturday afternoon with a keynote presentation from Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, PhD, MD, the current CEO and President of Meharry Medical College, the nation’s largest private historically Black academic health sciences center. He first spoke about his groundbreaking research on the role of cholesterol and exosomes in HIV infection and pathogenesis, and his work has resulted in an FDA-approved drug to treat HIV, Raptiva. He then utilized the latter half of his keynote to talk about his inspiring career path in science and medicine, where he broke barriers as the first African American to serve in many of his roles. After Dr. Hildreth’s keynote address, conference attendees had the opportunity to attend two different poster sessions with cookies as a snack, as well as sit in on several interactive breakout sessions that focused on Finding Good Mentors, Career Paths in Training, and MSTP Admissions with advice from current students. Saturday evening concluded with a networking hour featuring a competitive round of trivia and a scavenger hunt, followed by drinks and a catered dinner.
The second day of the conference began with oral presentations by both undergraduate and current MD-PhD students. Congratulations to Vanderbilt MSTP students Avery Bogart (G4) who was awarded first place for her oral presentation in the graduate student category and Reilly Fankhauser (G2) for winning first place in the poster presentation graduate student category! In addition, several Vanderbilt MSTP Summer Scholars and Vanderbilt Undergraduate students presented poster and oral presentation. The oral presentations were followed by a second round of breakout sessions focused on MSTP Admissions with Directors, Advocacy in Medicine and Science, and PSTPs and Residency Programs. The conference concluded with a keynote address from Dr. Duane Mitchell, MD, PhD, the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy at the University of Florida. As a prominent leader in the brain cancer immunotherapy field, he highlighted his work designing and leading several clinical trials utilizing adoptive cell therapy for cancers like glioblastomas and medulloblastomas. At the end of his talk, he also gave practical advice for how trainees can succeed as future-physician scientists, focusing on finding good mentors.
Overall, SEMSS provided an excellent opportunity to meet fellow physician-scientist trainees throughout the career path, hear from inspiring speakers, and learn more about all the wonderful work that other aspiring physician-scientists are doing around the country. A huge thank you to the 2024 SEMSS Vanderbilt Organizing Committee, Bryn Sierra, Dr, Megan Williams, and Dr. Chris Williams for all of their tireless efforts in making this conference a success. We could not have done it without everyone’s help and guidance! We hope to see everyone at SEMSS next year when it will be hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in Birmingham, Alabama!
