Onward... by Alexis Mark

Graduation has come and gone for the PCOM Biomedical Sciences Class of 2012. I know that no matter what the journey has been to accomplish this achievement, we all have worked so hard and most definitely earned a moment of glory! Congratulations to everyone!

My experiences during the first year the Biomedical Sciences program at PCOM have strengthened my knowledge base of the sciences and enhanced my appreciation of just how complex and useful science is toward piecing together the processes involved in human health and illness. The advancement of medicine would be incomplete without scientific progress. And this was part of the big picture lesson that I more fully realized while pursuing the research concentration during my second year of the program.

Now, I would just like to take a moment to share with you some words of wisdom, a handful of hopefully helpful hints on surviving and thriving in graduate school. My first tip would be to work smart. While, of course it is a known fact that you must work diligently to achieve your goals, it is important to be efficient! This means understanding how you best study and absorb ideas with the goal of truly learning the material you need. Gauge the tools, tangible and abstract, that will help you move forward to thoroughly understand the concepts you will need, whether it be in preparation for a test, how to plan an experiment, or learning how one idea fits into a more complex one.

Secondly, take time. Remember to pencil in time for activities that make you, well ... you. Meaning to say, take time for what is important to shaping who you are and contributes to your success ... by the way, this includes SLEEP! Seize those opportunities that enable you to grow by stepping outside of your comfort zone. Take time to appreciate the resources available to you, and use them to your benefit to enhance what you know.

Lastly, have fun! No one wants to be around a boring grad student who only talks about their research all day and all night! Get out and live a little!

Also, the website scholarships.com reviews ways to make the most of your graduate eduction in the article, “Top 10 Tips for Surviving Graduate School,” found at the following website: http://www.scholarships.com/resources/after-college/graduate-and-professional-school/top-10-tips-for-surviving-graduate-school/. My favorite snippets of wisdom from the site’s features are: 1) Take initiative, 2) Get organized, and 3) Prioritize.

And now, as I end my final blog post, I am reminded of that cliché phrase that although graduation marks an end, it also symbolizes another beginning. So onward to next chapter I charge, full of unknowns and new horizons that I eagerly anticipate! But, I will remain thankful for and remember the challenging times and lessons learned, the people I met and true friends made, and the experiences I’ve gathered over the past two years.

An Amazing Opportunity (AAAEB 2012) by Jameel Shareef

Time is really flying. Can you believe that the year is almost over? Only 9 weeks left in the school year. For us 2^nd years there is still so much work to be done. On the research track most have completed data collection for their respective projects while others are finishing up experiments. Many of us have started writing our thesis papers, (or we have at least thought about it), and others are preparing posters to be presented at various conventions such as the American Association of Anatomists Experimental Biology (AAAEB) Conference in San Diego. This year, I am excited to have the opportunity to do just that.

At this year’s AAAEB conference, I will be presenting my project which is titled “The In Vivo Reorganization of Laminin in Relation to α1 Integrin in Chick Skeletal Muscle.” This project has involved studying the arrangement of an extracellular matrix protein called laminin that plays a key role in the development of skeletal muscle in embryonic chicks. Laminin is a heterotrimeric, (composed of 3 subunits (α, β and γ)), protein that is a major component of the basement membrane, which is an extracellular matrix material that coats most cells in the body. Laminins work with Integrins, which are heterodimeric (composed of 2 subunits (α and β)) cellular transmembrane receptor proteins, to anchor cells to the basement membrane. Deficiencies in the Laminins and or Integrins that are involved in the development and organization of skeletal muscle have been known to result in muscular dystrophies. The specific Laminin to Integrin combination involved determines type of muscular dystrophy. In previous work, Alpha-1 (α1) Integrin was found to reorganize in chick skeletal muscle from a punctate (spotty) distribution to one that is more periodic (occurring at intervals) within the muscle sarcomere. Prior to hatching, α1 distribution becomes punctate again and eventually disperses to a point where it is no longer visible with immunohistochemical staining. The function of α1 integrin is unknown, but its reorganization during the gestation period is thought to indicate a structural role in muscle development. Previous In Vitro studies have established a linkage between the spatial and temporal reorganization of α1 and the localization of Laminin. The purpose of my study is to determine if that same relationship occurs In Vivo.

I am genuinely looking forward to attending the AAAEB conference next month. The opportunity to not only share my work but to learn about other potentially revolutionary studies is exciting. I have learned so much this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

V-Day: A Venue for Change by Alexis Mark

Many enter the healthcare field with the intent of helping people. This often becomes a challenge for many reasons. Sometimes this challenge is attributed to the fact that a disease is not fully understood. At others, it is because patients are noncompliant with treatment. Then there are instances in which environmental or lifestyle factors become hindrances. Throughout our professional lives, we will face circumstances in which a problem just seems insurmountable, and the intent to solve it gets lost in the reality of its power to overwhelm us. However, we also hold the power to decide to remain persistent. I’m now reminded of one of my former teachers who frequently said, life is a series of decisions. And, while I agree with this, I also posit that it is a series of actions that we take to define solutions and improvements.

So where does V-Day come into play with this post? And what, you may be wondering is The Vagina Monologues? V-Day and The Vagina Monologues are efforts that address the issue of violence, specifically tackling violence against women.

To briefly summarize, V-Day is a worldwide movement established in 1998 with a group of women in New York City as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Its goal is to empower anti-violence organizations and at the same time represents a commitment to ending violence against women and girls. According to the website, http://www.vday.org, V-Day’s purpose is to end violence against females, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery. This problem may be larger than you are aware of: according to the UN report The World’s Women 2012: Trends and Statistics one key finding was “Violence against women is a universal phenomenon.”

Eve Ensler, a Tony-award winning playwright and the author of The Vagina Monologues, decided to take action by expressing the voices of those women whose stories are often untold, forgotten, or deemed not as important as other matters. Her intention is to foster dialogues about and allow for an openness in understanding and breaking down this worldwide challenge. The play launched in 1994 and was the culmination of dozens of interviews administered by Ensler with women from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. The show initially ran in New York and then toured around the U.S.A.

Today over 5,800 performances are put on annually during the months of March, April, and May. Last year I had the honor of participating in PCOM's annual production of The Vagina Monologues. It required me to step outside my comfort zone, but this is something I believe I need to continually push myself to do. It also allowed me to come together in solidarity with others for a cause that DEMANDS attention. While violence against women may seem deep-rooted and overwhelming, there are steps we can take to educate and change cultural and societal attitudes about violence against women.

This year, PCOM’s performance of The Vagina Monologues will take place Saturday, February 11 at 7pm and Sunday, February 12 at 2pm. I urge you to come support your classmates who have put a TON of effort into this production and support V-Day as a way to implement change.

Congratulations! by Alexis Mark

I just want to start things off with a couple of congratulations. Firstly, best wishes to the PCOM D.O. class of 2015 on receiving their white coats yesterday! I truly admire your dedication toward reaching the goal of becoming a physician. Good luck with your pursuits over the next four years! Secondly, congratulations to the first year biomeds on completing their first Molecular Basis of Medicine (MBM) and Infectious Process (IP) exams!

The other week I was reminded of that time last year when I was studying for the first MBM test and the IP midterm as I ran into a student who was in one of the smaller orientation groups I led just two months ago. Time flies when you’re busy studying, so use it wisely! IP was a class I truly enjoyed because it allowed me to connect some of the things I learned while working at MSKCC (www.mskcc.org) with more specific information on the processes at work in the immune system. One caution for learning the material for this class: IT’S EASY TO GET LOST IN THE DETAILS! This is especially true for the lectures leading up to the final, as you will soon experience. My tip would be to look at the big picture and THEN understand the building blocks that compose it. So as you’re going through cellular reperfusion and inflammatory pathways, try to first understand why and when this happens, and then how. To reiterate Susan’s first post of the blog, make the material your own. For me, I’m really a hands-on learner, so lecture-based classes can be challenging for me, but I will make topics into a project of sorts so that I can get a deeper understanding of what was covered. For someone else, “making the material his or her own” can mean coming up with mnemonics that make it easier to recall the order of certain processes, or making outlines, or drawing out diagrams and charts, but the bottom line is the same: do what works best for you.

Warm and Welcoming... By: Jameel Shareef

Hello everyone, my name is Jameel Shareef. Like my colleagues and fellow blog contributors I am also a second year Bio Med student following the research track here at PCOM. As I will describe in further detail shortly, PCOM is a very warm and welcoming school with people from all walks of life and the Bio Medical Sciences Masters Program is an amazing opportunity that allows future science and health professionals to get acclimated to graduate level school work after entering the working world for a time or it can act as resume or GPA booster for graduates interested in applying to professional school, but first let me share a few things about me.

I earned my Bachelors Degree in Biology from the esteemed Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. I originally entered Morehouse with the intent to pursue a career in medicine. I had always been interested in science and from my early childhood years. My father worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep, which introduced me to various health care professionals at a very young age and provided me with various shadowing opportunities as I got older. During the summer before my senior year, I obtained an internship at the Atlanta Veteran’s Administration Hospital in the inpatient pharmacy. This opportunity intrigued me opened my eyes to another potential career path in the health care industry that I initially had very little knowledge of. In my time there, I gained invaluable experience as health care provider and knowledge on the intricacies of hospital pharmacy and various techniques such as IV prep, dosing, and dispensing. I also made the rounds on the patient floors with the medical team on several occasions. In the summer after I graduated, I also work as an intern at the Association of Black Cardiologists (www.abcardio.org) in Atlanta, GA, a non-profit organization committed to the study and eventual elimination of cardiovascular health disparities amongst minorities. While working there, I completed various administrative tasks, such as, compiling and organizing data from surveys taken at various community events around the country into spreadsheets, applying for logo patents, and created company profiles for the executive officers of ABC for potential corporate sponsors. I also began laying the groundwork for a mentorship program for high school and college students interested in careers in medicine.

The VA internship helped me to secure a position as a certified pharmacy tech at Dekalb Medical Center in Decatur, GA, where I worked for a year and a half after finishing at Morehouse. Here I expanded my knowledge of previously learned techniques that I could not perform as an intern such as handling narcotics and preparing chemo meds in the IV room. I enjoyed my time at Dekalb in my expanded role in the pharmacy, but I began to see that my true passion in patient care was in role of a physician. These realizations reignited my passion for medicine and fueled my desire to become a physician. I chose to move back home and focus on getting into school, preferably a post baccalaureate or masters program to help boost my credentials and compensate for my time away from school and it was here that I learned of PCOM and the Biomedical Sciences program.

From the first time that I walked through the doors at PCOM as visitor, I felt welcome and knew that I was in the right place, and even now as I am entering my second year those feelings still exist. One person who is primarily responsible for the warm atmosphere at PCOM is Ms. Debbie who works the front desk in Evans Hall. She remembers almost everyone’s name and greets everyone with a big smile. No matter what kind of day you are having she always manages to put a smile on your face. This same warmth is an integral part of the culture at PCOM and is also shared by staff, faculty, and fellow students.

When classes finally started, there was a bit of an adjustment period for me having been out of school for close to three years. It is true that we only have class three days a week but the amount of a material that I received in each four hour lecture was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Two things that are extremely important in this program or any other program for that matter are time management and keeping your priorities in order. Taking it easy for a day could set you back several days in terms of the material. Keeping your head above water is very doable; it is just a matter of finding a balance between school and personal life and doing what works for you. To all the incoming students I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to PCOM. To prospective students interested in coming to PCOM, I hope that this post has been informative and has been helpful in your decision to attend. Until next time.

Medical Decisions by Alexis Mark

Of all the professional arenas one could choose from, health and medicine calls to me the most. You might ask what is the attraction to medicine, as I too often ponder the reasons why I have decided to commit to this field and think about where I’m heading. Well, the simple answer is, I like it! The bit more involved one requires my learning more about myself and the fact that I am intrigued by science's endless possibilities to discover more about the human body and its intricate functions. My experiences over the first year of the Biomedical Sciences program here at PCOM have deepened my passion for further understanding the application of science to medicine. Currently I am pursuing the research track during the second year of the Biomedical Sciences master’s degree. Over the next few blog posts I will discuss classes in the first year in more depth and my experience with the research track.

But FIRST, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Alexis, and I am also a contributor to Biomedventures... welcome to joining our journey! Here is a little bit about me and what I have done before arriving at PCOM:

2007 - present: Medical Missions for Children Volunteer (www.mmfc.org)

I have been a volunteer with this incredible organization that is dedicated to providing medical care to global populations that do not have access to adequate medical care. Groups of healthcare professionals headline missions, which focus on surgical cases involving repair of cleft lip, cleft palate, and microtia, as well as skin grafts for burns patients. During the spring of 2008, I participated in a mission to L’viv, Ukraine and photographed patient cases and surgeries. Currently, I assist with procuring donations of medical supplies for future missions, and with donations for auctions at annual benefit galas.

2007 - 2010: Clinical Research Study Assistant, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), NY, NY- (www.mskcc.org)

My position at this preeminent cancer research center focused on clinical trials within the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) service. I worked with several principal investigators of studies to monitor regulatory processes, and was involved in ensuring trials were conducted according to FDA and sponsor rules and regulations. In addition, I created patient progress reports for those participants enrolled in BMT trials. MSKCC was a wonderful experience during which I had the privilege to work with highly-esteemed oncologists that affirmed my commitment to working in the medical field.

Summer 2007: Alpha One Foundation, Dublin, Ireland (http://www.alpha1.ie/)

My internship after graduating from college took me to the Emerald Isle! :) As a clinical research assistant I participated in many facets of the organization. I helped with recruiting potential candidates in clinics around Dublin for the Targeted Screening Detection Program with the head Clinical Research Nurse. The recruitment process entailed assessing patients’ medical history for respiratory illness and providing the patient with a brief summary of the condition Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. By shadowing the scientists in the lab on site, I assisted with minor experimental procedures. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at this foundation and seeing firsthand the medical system of another country.

Spring 2007: Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

During the spring semester of my senior year at Boston College, I was a health communication research assistant. I assisted in the development of studies, for a principal investigator in the Communication department, by collecting audio documentation of interactions between medical school students and standardized patient educators (SPE) within the context of a routine doctor’s visit. After each recording, I analyzed segments of dialogue between medical school students and SPEs for verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors. The results of this data collection and analyses by myself, other research assistants, and the principal investigator have been used in several health communication research publications. This area of research particularly exciting for its relevance and useful applications in fostering more productive medical visits.

Finally, I truly encourage all readers to post comments, feedback. Let us know how we all can help in answering questions you might have. And, if we don’t have the answer, we will work to find someone who does! Welcome to discovering more about PCOM and best of luck in your exploration of professional studies!