Minority Medical Students Receive Support To Increase Diversity In Hematology

Main Category: Blood / Hematology
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 17 Jul 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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As newly selected participants of the Minority Medical Student Award Program, 11 students with an interest in blood research will receive research awards from the American Society of Hematology, the support of two mentors (one in research and one in career development), travel stipends to attend medical meetings, and a subscription to the scientific journal Blood.

"The field of hematology, perhaps even more than other specialties of medicine, demands an understanding of mechanisms of disease in a wide spectrum of racial and ethnic populations," said ASH President, Andrew I. Schafer, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College. "ASH is therefore particularly proud to sponsor this pioneering award program to stimulate our brightest underrepresented minority medical students to enter careers in hematology research."

For an eight- to 12-week period, the participants will work closely with their mentors on a research project of importance to hematology. The subjects investigated by this year's students are diverse and include lymphoma, leukemia, sickle cell anemia, polycythemia, and stem cells. The awardees will also have the opportunity to present the results of their research at ASH's annual meeting in December, one of the largest medical meetings in the country with more than 20,000 attendees.

The 2007 MMSAP winners are:

Awet Abraha
Wayne State University School of Medicine,
Detroit, MI

Olabunmi Agboola
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine,
Chicago, IL

Abisola Ayodeji
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine,
Richmond, VA

Luz Juliana Barahona
Universidad Central del Caribe SOM,
Bayamon, Puerto Rico

Melissa Bent
Morehouse School of Medicine,
Atlanta, GA

Johnaca Biggins
Ohio State University College of Medicine,
Columbus, OH

Ashanti Franklin
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine,
Los Angeles, CA

Nicole Jones
Wayne State University School of Medicine,
Detroit, MI

Johnathan J. Ledet
Louisiana State University School of Medicine,
Shreveport, LA

Emily McElveen
Brown Medical School,
Providence, RI

Jennifer Robles
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine,
Cleveland, OH

The program is offered to medical students from the United States and Canada in the early years of their DO, MD, or MD/PhD programs. For more information, please see the MMSAP page on the ASH Web site.

This award program is supported through 2009 by a grant from Genentech BioOncology.

The American Society of Hematology is the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. Its mission is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic, and vascular systems, by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.

http://www.hematology.org

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