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MSTP Blog

MSTPublications: January 2024

Jan. 30, 2024—Approximating Projections of Conformational Boltzmann Distributions with AlphaFold2 Predictions: Opportunities and Limitations. Brown BP, Stein RA, Meiler J, Mchaourab HS. J Chem Theory Comput. 2024 Jan 12. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01081. Online ahead of print. Protein thermodynamics is intimately tied to biological function and can enable processes such as signal transduction, enzyme catalysis, and molecular recognition. The...

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Life in the MSTP – December 2023

Dec. 18, 2023—  The annual MSTP Winter Chili Party hosted by the MSTP Wellness Committee was another big success! Full of chili, a giant charcuterie board, bluegrass music, and white elephant present exchanges, everyone had a great time! Thank you to Kimmy Bress (G2), Kevin Zhang (G1), Bryn Sierra (MSTP Program Manager), and the rest of the...

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ADI Highlights

Dec. 18, 2023—Candace Grisham (G3) and Dr. Megan Williams (MSTP Assistant Director) presented a poster on the ADI Council’s Longitudinal Curriculum in Health and Research Equity for the MSTP including information on the a new summer course called Foundations in Health and Research Equity for MSTP students at the Vanderbilt Health Professions Education Research Day.

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Shade Tree Clinic Benefit

Dec. 18, 2023—By Kimmy Bress (G2) Shade Tree Clinic is Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s student run health clinic which provides free medical care to underserved, uninsured, and homeless adults and children in Nashville.  MSTP students play a key role in Shade Tree Clinic, and benefit immensely from the opportunity maintain clinical skills through service at Shade...

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Physician-Scientist Speaker Series with Amanda Doran, MD, PhD

Dec. 18, 2023—by Neil Chada (G2) On December 5th, 2023, the Vanderbilt MSTP had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Amanda Doran for the Fall Physician-Scientist Speaker Series (PSSS). Dr. Doran is a cardiologist-scientist at VUMC with appointments in the Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics. Originally from Belleair Beach, Florida,...

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MSTPublications: December 2023

Dec. 18, 2023—Developing and evaluating pediatric phecodes (Peds-Phecodes) for high-throughput phenotyping using electronic health records. Grabowska ME, Van Driest SL, Robinson JR, Patrick AE, Guardo C, Gangireddy S, Ong HH, Feng Q, Carroll R, Kannankeril PJ, Wei WQ. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2023 Dec 1:ocad233. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad233. Online ahead of print. Objective: Pediatric patients have different...

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Honors and Awards – December 2023

Dec. 18, 2023—  Congratulations to Mark Rusznak (G3) and Hailey Kresge (G2) for receiving NIH NRSA F30 Fellowships!     Congratulations to Camella Carlson (G1) and Sharon Fernandez (G1) for their recent admission into the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) which recognizes individuals who are exemplars of humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in...

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Honors and Awards – November 2023

Nov. 29, 2023—Neil Chada (G2) placed first in graduate student oral presentations and Nada Elsayed (G2) received first place in graduate student poster presentations at SEMSS this year!   Dr. Matthew O’Neill (M4) was the winner of the Genomic and Precision Medicine Early Career Investigator Award Competition by the American Heart Association. Matthew received the award at the organization’s 2023 Scientific Sessions following the presentation...

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Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS)

Nov. 29, 2023—A group of 11 Vanderbilt MSTP students attended the Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS) at Emory this year and presented posters and gave oral presentations. Some of our students and members of our Leadership Team served on the breakout room panels as well. Congratulations to Nada Elsayed (G2) and Neil Chada (G2) for winning presentation...

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Life in the MSTP – November 2023

Nov. 29, 2023—Congratulations to Allie Lake (G3) and Bernie Mulvey who recently got married with many MSTP classmates in attendance!   MSTP students ran into alum Dr. Ayesha Muhammad (class of 2023) at the American Society of Human Genetics Conference this year in Washington DC.   MSTP students at the annual Cancer Biology Program Retreat.   Current MSTP students Sarah Reed (G3)...

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ADI Highlights

Nov. 29, 2023—MSTP ADI Media Club The MSTP ADI Council hosted a fall media club, “A Reflection on the Tennessee Three,” where students watched C-SPAN recordings of the expulsion hearings of representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson and had a moderated discussion about the events. Thank you to Matt Loberg (G4) for organizing!

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Meet the new Edwards-Goodpasture PSTP Associate College Advisor: Nick Parrish, MD, PhD 

Nov. 29, 2023—by Camella Carlson (G1) Dr. Nick Parrish is a general surgery chief resident at Vanderbilt and leader of a research team at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Yokohama, Japan. His clinical interests are in transplant surgery and his research seeks to understand the interactions between an organism’s genome and it’s viruses. He...

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MSTPublications: November 2023

Nov. 29, 2023—Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor activation stimulates PKA-mediated phosphorylation of raptor and this contributes to the weight loss effect of liraglutide. Le TDV, Liu D, Besing GK, Raghavan R, Ellis BJ, Ceddia RP, Collins S, Ayala JE. Elife. 2023 Nov 6;12:e80944. doi: 10.7554/eLife.80944. Online ahead of print. The canonical target of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R), Protein...

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We’re all #MSTPstars!

Oct. 31, 2023—#MSTPstar features a selection of some of amazing things we do in our real lives: finding new/enjoying old study spots, making time to purchase food so our bodies have calories, remembering where we parked our car, etc. Submit your #MSTPstar here. Stephanie Cajigas (G4), in the halloween spirit, crocheted a super cute Frankenstein and cauldron!

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Life in the MSTP – October 2023

Oct. 31, 2023—Jeewoo Kim (G2) and her partner Daniel got engaged!   Vanderbilt MSTP students and Leadership Team members particiapted in the Nashville JDRF One Walk on October 29 in memory of our friend and colleague Zachary Jones.   Simone Herzberg (G4) placed first in her age and gender groups in a Spartan Race!   Mark Petrovic (G1)...

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