Honors and Publications
Diane Chang
Third-year student Diane Chang presented an abstract entitled The Influence of Religion and Spirituality on Decisions to Withdraw Life-Sustaining Therapies: Differences Between European American and Hispanic Parents at the 2007 Pediatric Academic Society Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, May 5–8. Her mentor for this project was Dr. Tracy Koogler from the departments of Anesthesia and Critical Care and Pediatrics. The work originated from her project with Pritzker’s Summer Research Program.
Taral Doshi
Fourth-year student Taral Doshi was first authoron the article, CT Colonography: False-Negative Interpretations, which appeared in the July 2007 edition of Radiology. The study evaluated if false-negative interpretations of computed tomographic (CT) colonography are due to observer error. The study was based on research that Taral started with Dr. Abraham Dachman during the Summer Research Program.
Kelly Eagen
Kelly Eagen, a fourth-year student, recently published a book review of Becoming a Doctor: Reflections of First-Year Medical Students, which appeared in the September 5 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Jeffrey Eisen
Third-year student Jeffrey Eisen recently published his paper entitled Upper and Lower Limb Motor Impairments in Alcoholism, HIV Infection, and Their Comorbidity in the June 2007 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study, for which he served as full-time research manager and supervised all aspects of the research, assessed upper and lower limb motor impairments in patients with alcoholism and HIV comorbidity. The paper is based upon a poster that Jeff first-authored and presented at the 2005 International Neuropsychological Society Conference entitled Disruption of Motor Component Processes by HIV, Alcoholism, and Their Comorbidity.
Emily Georgitis
Fourth-year student Emily Georgitis serves as a co-author on a paper published in the September 10, 2007 issue of the Archives of General Internal Medicine. This article, entitled Improving Sleep Hygiene of Medical Interns: Can the Sleep, Alertness, and Fatigue Education in Residency Program Help? grew from Emily’s participation in the 2005 University of Chicago Summer Research Program with her mentor, Dr. Vineet Arora.
Andy Hong
Andy Hong, a fourth-year student, was first author of UDP-Glucuronosyltransferase1A1 Gene Polymorphisms and Total Bilirubin Levels in an Ethnically Diverse Cohort of Women, published in the August 2007 issue of Drug Metabolism and Disposition. The purpose of the study was to look at the genetic differences in women between Caucasian and African Americans via Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and to understand whether these differences led to any significant alterations in a generally tested chemical in the body, bilirubin. The experiment was a pilot study, and they will continue to expand the work this year. Th e study was based on research that Andy conducted with Dr. Funmi Olopade.
Seema Jeswani
Second-year student Seema Jeswani was chosen as a 2007 AAAAI Summer Clinical Research Fellowship Medical Student Grant recipient. The grant supports her research, conducted under Dr. Jayant Pinto, that evaluates the relationship between seasonal allergies and loss of olfaction. The goal of the project is to determine whether loss of smell can be directly due to inflammation causing an obstruction in the nasal airway, or indirectly causing damage to the olfactory epithelium, or both.
Jaewon Ryu
Jaewon Ryu, MD; a 2004 graduate of Pritzker’s joint MD/JD degree program, received the distinction of being named a 2007–2008 White House Fellow. President Lyndon B. Johnson founded the program in 1964, offering exceptional young men and women in an array of fields first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. Prior to matriculation at Pritzker, Jaewon bicycled from Washington, DC to San Francisco in order to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. After the experience, he spent one year working for Ameri-Corps and their I Have a Dream program to teach inner-city youth. Jaewon now serves as a physician in the specialty of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Yasmin Sacro
Yasmin Sacro, MD ‘06 was chosen by her 30 fellow interns at the Scripps Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program as the Outstanding Intern of the Year.
Nathan Tonlaar
Matriculating first-year student Nathan Tonlaar is the recipient of a Dr. Jose MijangosScholarship. Only those students entering the top-25-ranked medical schools in the country and Dr. Mijangos’s alma mater, the University of Rochester, are eligible. Winners of the $21,000 scholarship are chosen for their academic strength, passion for medicine, and a demonstration of a strong ethical and moral character.
Paul VanderLaan
Current fourth-year medical student, Paul VanderLaan, PhD was first author of the article Characterization of the Natural Killer T-Cell Response in an Adoptive Transfer Model of Atherosclerois, which recently appeared in the American Journal of Pathology. The study, which highlighted the atherogenic potential of NKT cells in murine modeled atherosclerosis, emanated from Paul’s 2007 doctoral thesis in the Department of Pathology. Dr. Godfrey Getz served as his advisor.
Jason Waldinger
Second-year student Jason Waldinger recently received a Student Scholarship in Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke from the American Heart Association. The award will allow him to conduct research with Dr. Steven Roth in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care. The goal of their project is to develop an animal model of perioperative ischemic optic neuropathy.
Geoffrey Wool
Through a pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association Greater Midwest Affiliate, sixth-year MD, PhD student Geoffrey Wool recently received an award to fund the remainder of his graduate work on apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptides. His work involves comparing single helix peptides, which have been shown to prevent atherosclerosis in mouse models of heart disease, with peptides containing two helices linked by a variety of linkers. He is testing monomeric and tandem peptides head-to-head in mice for their ability to limit atherosclerotic lesion size as well as compare their properties in vitro.
