Adam Johnson, a third-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College, was awarded a one-year Medical Research Fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to research cardiovascular complications in patients with a genetic connective tissue disorder called Marfan syndrome.
The institute provides funding for biomedical research and science education to make discoveries that benefit humanity and move science forward. Areas of research include AIDS, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. The Medical Research Fellows Program, a $3 million annual initiative designed to develop the next generation of physician-scientists, gives medical, dental and veterinary students the opportunity to take a year off from their schooling and conduct basic, translational or applied biomedical research at an academic or nonprofit research institution.
Each student receives a $41,000 grant to conduct their proposed research at a designated facility under the direction of their chosen mentor.
"For me, becoming a good doctor means developing the skills of both an experienced clinician and a thoughtful scientist," Johnson said. "There are only a handful of programs that fund medical students to specifically nurture a passion for scientific exploration and the biology of diseases. This fellowship is an exceedingly generous gift from HHMI and I am deeply honored to have received it."
Johnson is spending the 2016-2017 academic year in the lab of Dr. Harry (Hal) Dietz, an HHMI Investigator at Johns Hopkins University, investigating regulatory events that predispose the formation of aortic aneurysms in patients with Marfan syndrome. Patients with this condition are at risk for fatal tears and ruptures of the aorta, Johnson said, and his research will seek to understand why these aneurysms occur at particular sites in the body and what developmental, epigenetic and cell-to-cell communication factors behind this indication could be targeted for potential therapies in the future.
"I have an in-born love for cardiology," Johnson said. "My research during the HHMI year will help lay a foundation for future cardiovascular research that I will carry forward throughout my career."