Seven Yale School of Medicine (YSM) students are among the 66 medical, dental, and veterinary students selected from thirty-eight schools in the United States for the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Fellows Program. This Program aims to develop the next generation of physician-scientists.
These students, Sarah Abdallah, Origami Alimi, Sarah Amalraj, Arash Fereydooni, Tess O’Meara, Julie Ramseier, and Douglas Rioux, all worked with a mentor to propose a potentially high-impact research project, as part of their application to the Program. Starting this summer, the students will have the opportunity to spend a year at Yale conducting mentored, laboratory-based research on their proposed projects. Each fellow receives $43,000 in grant support.
While six of the YSM students are first-time recipients, Amalraj is among the fourteen HHMI Research Fellows extending their fellowship to conduct their research. Amalraj’s research topic is “The role of myrf in left-right patterning and gastrulation in Xenopus tropicalis”.
The other research topics are:
Sarah Abdallah: “Uncovering Post-Zygotic Variants in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder”
Oriyomi Alimi: “In vivo efficacy and pharmacokinetics of a novel anti-RNLS humanized monoclonal antibody in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor in a congenic mouse melanoma model”
Arash Fereydooni: “Effects of rapamycin on adaptive venous remodeling to improve arteriovenous fistula patency”
Tess O'Meara: “Characterizing the anti-tumor immune response in triple negative breast cancers of African American and non-African American women through cell population and genomic methods”
Julie Ramseier: “Elucidating the role of interleukin-6 signaling in the anti-melanoma immune response”
Douglas Rioux: “Identification and characterization of chemosensory neurons involved in respiration in Drosophila melanogaster”
HHMI partners with other organizations to expand the impact of the Program. Abdallah’s research is supported by one of these groups, the American Society of Human Genetics.
YSM tied Harvard Medical School for having the most HHMI Research Fellows selected.
Two fellowship recipients who do not attend YSM will be conducting their research at Yale.