“Data” Proves Success of MGfC Digestive Disease Summer Research Program

Successful scientific research that leads to advances in human health is built on collecting accurate and reliable information, usually over an extended period of time. The Mass General for Children (MGfC) Digestive Disease Summer Research Program celebrated its 10^th year with an abundance of data that demonstrates the success of the program designed to train students to conduct an independent research project and communicate their findings at the end of the 10-week program.

Since 2015, the program has graduated 106 students. Seventy percent are women and 20 percent come from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM careers. The summer research program focuses on student training in immunology, microbiology, cell biology, bioengineering, biomedical imaging, genetics, computational biology, and clinical research.

The program is funded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and has featured more than 30 faculty mentors since its inception.

Hannah Seay, MD, a graduate of the 2015 summer research program, represents the career success of many program alumni who have gone on to graduate from medical school before moving on to successful residencies and fellowships locally and nationally.

Dr. Seay, a graduate of the 2015 summer student program, is now a first-year fellow in pediatric pulmonology at MGfC. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she was hired by her summer program mentors (Wayne Shreffler, MD, PhD, and Victoria Martin MD MPH) to work as a clinical research coordinator in the MGfC Food Allergy Center.

In this role, she co-published multiple original research articles, some of which described investigations she began during her summer research experience. After several years at the Food Allergy Center, she entered medical school and is now a first-year fellow in pediatric pulmonology at MGfC.

Some program graduates, including Ziv Cohen and Rachel Levantovsky, chose to enroll in MD/ PhD programs and conduct thesis projects in the field of digestive disease. Other graduates of the summer research program have followed non-clinician biomedical research career paths, including William “BJ” Massey PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Microbiome and Human Health at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Institute; Brittany Davis, MS, Clinical Research Coordinator at the Indiana University School of Medicine; and Kimberly Gardner, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis. The current count of original peer-reviewed research articles with former students as co-authors is more than two dozen.

This year’s class of nine members presented their findings to faculty and students August 9 at the Charlestown Navy Yard Mass General Hospital (MGH) campus. At the peer-reviewed symposium, undergraduate and medical students from regional and national institutions shared original research findings into polycystic ovary syndrome, eosinophilic esophagitis, respiratory syncytial virus, celiac disease, dopamine levels in mice, mRNA expression of zonulin, protein studies in Shigella flexneri, and the modulation of neutrophils with human serum.

Along with developing independent research projects, students of the program meet twice weekly for classroom presentations from MGH/MGfC/Harvard Medical School faculty and attend a career advisory panel discussion and social events. Under the mentorship of faculty from MGfC and MGH, students learn research techniques in advanced imaging, microfluidics, molecular biology, microbiology, computational biology, stem cell biology, immune cell isolation, in vivo modeling, and patient-based clinical research.

Summer research for undergraduates at MGfC had been championed by the former Mucosal Immunology Laboratory director, W. Allan Walker, MD. Over several years,  Dr. Walker mentored Bryan Hurley, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at MGH, to gather information and develop a formalized and externally funded summer research program in the field of digestive disease.

Dr. Hurley greatly benefited from the summer program during his early research training and was eager to work with Dr. Walker toward building such programs.

The MGfC Digestive Disease Summer Research Program was officially launched in 2015 under the directorship of Dr. Hurley after he was awarded an R25 Education Program Grant by the NIH.  He has continued to serve as director for the program that is housed in what in now called the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center (MIBRC) at MGfC.

In his concluding remarks at the symposium, Dr. Hurley praised current MIBRC Director Alessio Fasano, MD, for supporting the collaborative experience for both faculty and students. “Dr. Fasano creates a fantastic environment at MIBRC where we can all interact and work together,” said Dr. Hurley. He thanked the other members of the Advisory Board for the Summer Student Research Program: Christina Faherty, PhD, and Marcy Kingsbury, PhD.

Keynote speaker John Leong, MD, PhD, the Edith Rieva and Hyman S. Trilling Professor and Chair of the Molecular and Microbiology Department at Tufts University School of Medicine presented “Actin poorly: cytoskeletal manipulation by enterohemorrhagic E. coli during intestinal colonization” after the student speakers and remained to attend a luncheon with students, staff, and faculty.

Students presenting at the symposium were (in order of presentation): Aleia Gisolfi-McCready, Davidson College with Mentor Rachel Wooten, MD; Yicheng “Danie” Liang, University of California, Davis with Mentor Chien Wen Su, PhD; Brianna Fountain, College of the Holy Cross with Mentor Wayne Shreffler, MD, PhD; Allison Chan, Brown University with Mentor James Moon, PhD; Karen “Kayn” Girsang, Brandeis University with Mentor Xingbin Ai, PhD; Callie Rheinheimer, DePauw University with Mentor Enid Martinez, MD; David Le, Albany Medical College with Mentor Ali Zomorrodi, PhD; Helen Cedzido, Tufts University with Mentor Christina Faherty, PhD; and Sophie Thompson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Mentor Daniel Irimia, MD.