For more than 15 years, the Minority Medical Student Award Program (MMSAP) has provided under-represented minority medical students with an opportunity to engage in an eight-to-12-week hematology-related research project under the guidance of ASH member mentors. This year, 13 students from the United States and Canada enrolled in DO, MD, or MD/PhD programs, took part in the Summer Research Experience, Flexible Research Experience, or Yearlong Research Experience.
SUMMER EXPERIENCE PARTICIPANTS
Suzy Bangudi — Ohio State College of Medicine; Describing Primary Care Provider Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults With SCD
Research Mentor: Susan Creary, MD, MSc; Career Development Mentor: Robert Baiocchi, MD, PhD
Emmanuel Dwomoh — Quinnipiac University; Characterization of the Impact of Tacrolimus on CAR Anti-tumor Activity
Research Mentor: Melody Smith, MD, MS; Career Development Mentor: James B. Bussel, MD
Jonathan Legier — Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans; Developing Naïve Phenotype PD-1 scFv-secreting CAR T Cells for B-cell Lymphoma
Research Mentor: Sarwish Rafiq, PhD; Career Development Mentor: Adetola Kassim, MBBS, MS
Nicholas Wilson — Morehouse School of Medicine; Causes of Death in Children and Young Adults With Sickle Cell Disease, 2010-2021
Research Mentor: Beatrice Gee, MD; Career Development Mentor: Tamara New, MD
FLEX EXPERIENCE PARTICIPANTS
Abdi Abud — University of Missouri-Columbia; Validation of a Natural Language Processing Tool for Identification of Acute Deep Venous Thrombosis Research Mentor: Damon Houghton, MD, MS; Career Development Mentor: Payal C. Desai, MD
Sarah Addison — Ohio State College of Medicine; Identifying Disparities in Survival Among Older Adults With Multiple Myeloma Based on Rural Versus Urban Residence Research Mentor: Ashley Rosko, MD; Career Development Mentor: Alison R. Walker, MD
Carla María Barrientos Risso — Ponce Health Sciences University; Discovering the Mechanisms of Non-Covalent BTK Inhibitor Resistance in CLL Research Mentor: Justin Taylor, MD; Career Development Mentor: Paibel Aguayo-Hiraldo, MD
Joab Camarena — Stanford School of Medicine; Immune Cloaking of SaCas9 to Enhance In Vivo saCas9-AAV6 Mediated Gene Editing Research Mentor: Matthew Porteus, MD, PhD; Career Development Mentor: Arturo Molina, MD K.
Ashley Lyttle — Meharry Medical College; Understanding and Overcoming Resistance to non- Covalent BTK Inhibitors Research Mentor: Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD; Career Development Mentor: Esther Obeng, MD, PhD
Omonike Oyelola — University of Connecticut Health Center; Assessing Disease-Specific Alterations Within the Bone Marrow Microenvironment in JAK2V617F Dependent Neoplasms Through Single-Cell Transcriptomics Research Mentor: Patrycja Dubielecka, PhD; Career Development Mentor: Angela Dispenzieri, MD
Mami Sow — Medical College of Wisconsin; Effect of Red Cell Transfusion on Microvascular Blood Flow in Sickle Cell Anemia Research Mentor: Joshua Field, MD; Career Development Mentor: Margo Rollins, MD
Bianca Ulloa — Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Developmental Hematopoietic Populations in Infant and Childhood Leukemias Research Mentor: Teresa Bowman, PhD; Career Development Mentor: Henny H. Billett, MD, MSc
YEARLONG EXPERIENCE
Fathima Mohamed — University of Minnesota; Targeting Metabolism in the Germinal Center for the Alleviation of Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease Research Mentor: Bruce Blazar, MD; Career Development Mentor: Gerald Woods, MD
