As a top-tier research-intensive medical school, Feinberg is widely known for producing innovative leaders within science and medicine who are able to identify solutions to significant knowledge gaps that present challenges within the field. This past academic year, 80 percent of Feinberg medical students graduated having submitted a first-authored manuscript to a peer-reviewed academic journal, continuing one of the long-standing pillars of Feinberg’s curriculum and professional development for its medical students — conducting independent research.

“Our students’ involvement in research is essential for shaping the future of medicine,” said Marianne Green, MD, vice dean for Education and the Raymond H. Curry, MD, Professor of Medical Education. “It fosters critical thinking, encourages innovation, and prepares students to ask and answer complex questions that will improve patient care. We are developing future scientists and leaders who are equipped with the skills and vision needed to address healthcare’s most pressing challenges.”

Feinberg’s student research leadership team — which includes Matt Feinstein, ’11 MD, ’17 MS, director of Student Research at Feinberg; Liza Rivnay, associate director of Student Research; and Cleo Wade, program assistant of Student Research — oversee research portfolios for medical students, which spans didactic and small group training to providing resources to facilitate each student in their independent, mentored research projects.

All medical students (except for dual-degree or graduate students who complete alternative projects) are required to complete an Area of Scholarly Concentration (AOSC) project, which connects students with Feinberg faculty mentors during their M1 year to formulate an independent research project that they complete during their medical school training.

Feinstein, who is also an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology, and of Pathology maintains that the aim of each student research project is to generate new knowledge while also building foundational skills for the students in research design, analysis, and interpretation.

“It’s hard to think of a more motivating goal than this. This energy and creativity are certainly something I see in students, who so often provide the impetus for a new research question or direction,” said Feinstein. “This ability to create something new that may impact human life for the better – and/or fundamentally alter how we understand health and disease – is an exciting, constantly motivating aspect of research. This makes its pursuit – including by physician-scientists who are also involved in clinical care of patients – so important.”

Medical students and dual-degree students can also spend a fully funded year devoted to mentored research by applying to Feinberg’s competitive Research Intensive Scholarly Emphasis (RISE) program. Established in 2021, RISE is co-led by Feinstein and Jacob Sznajder, MD, the Ernest S. Bazley Professor of Asthma and Related Disorders and a professor in the Departments of Medicine and of Cell and Developmental Biology.

Our students’ involvement in research is essential for shaping the future of medicine. It fosters critical thinking, encourages innovation, and prepares students to ask and answer complex questions that will improve patient care. We are developing future scientists and leaders who are equipped with the skills and vision needed to address healthcare’s most pressing challenges.

Marianne Green, MD

“Research experiences inevitably vary – every question is different, every mentor is different, every student is different. Through AOSC, we aim to standardize certain tenets (professional communication, research ethics, etc.) that can be taught in a standardized way, while providing the flexible support for students to succeed in their own independent research journeys,” Feinstein said. The goal of RISE, according to Feinstein, is to provide students with early experience and exposure to a possible career as a physician-scientist. The program accepts 10 to 15 students per year and is one of just a few such programs in medical schools nationwide.

During her RISE year, Charlotte Reed, a third-year medical student, investigated new molecular mechanisms that promote the resolution of inflammatory skin diseases by using an in vivo model of SAM syndrome (severe dermatitis, multiple allergies, and metabolic wasting syndrome), a very rare genetic skin disease.

“I do really enjoy research. It’s different from doing clinical work, and I like having that variety. I also like that you can get answers to problems that patients may be having and it’s very exciting that things can be improved for patients based off what you’re doing in research,” said Reed, who was mentored by Kathleen J. Green, PhD, the Joseph L. Mayberry, Sr., Professor of Pathology and Toxicology, during her RISE year.

“Dr. Green was, and still is, a great mentor. She’s very involved in helping us develop as scientists,” Reed said. “We had weekly one-on-one meetings with her or with the other faculty scientists where we’d talk about data and progress, and she was just very involved in the process of helping me think through my experiments.”

Lynna Yang, a fourth-year medical student, spent her RISE year studying the molecular mechanisms underlying epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin disease that causes blistering and fragile skin, alongside Amy Paller, MS, MD, ’81 ’83 GME, chair and the Walter J. Hamlin Professor of Dermatology and director of the Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-Based Center.

“I’ve had the opportunity to not only do this research but also meet a lot of the patients and hear their stories, and it’s been really inspiring. In the future, I think I’d love to continue working with this patient population,” Yang said.

During her RISE year, which she completed between her third and fourth year of medical school, Yang worked with mouse models of epidermolysis bullosa and helped lead clinical trials overseen by Paller. This experience, Yang said, taught her about the importance of continuously modifying experiments and optimizing protocol for clinical trials to increase patient enrollment and ensure patient safety.

“As tedious as these steps can be, they’re important because they’re making clinical trials safe for patients and ensuring you’re getting good data,” Yang said. “Oftentimes, I feel like things don’t go the way you want them to, but it’s been a valuable experience to learn to problem-solve and workshop around those challenges.”

Khizar Nandoliya, a third-year medical student, said that doing research during medical school solidified his aspirations of going into neurosurgery and continuing research as a practicing physician. Nandoliya’s research has been published in the Journal of Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neuro-Oncology, among others, and he has collaborated with faculty across the Department of Neurological Surgery and in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology.

“Doing this research has really helped me think about what I want to do for the rest of my career. Neurosurgery patients are often very sick and neurological diseases can have a uniquely detrimental impact on quality of life and patient identity, and working on these clinical projects has really shown me that there’s a lot of opportunity to push the field forward and has helped me think about the work I want to do as a physician,” Nandoliya said.

Throughout his time at Feinberg, James Guo, a fourth-year medical student and previous RISE scholar, has been able to conduct research in preventive cardiology under the guidance of members in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology.

For Guo, having dedicated time to do research during his RISE year redirected and solidified his career trajectory into pursuing academic cardiology, he said. “I would credit my RISE year and the AOSC curriculum for enabling me to really explore research in depth and giving me a taste for discovery,” Guo said. “I love learning and I’ve always been enamored by the idea of being in academics, but the AOSC curriculum and my RISE year specifically gave me direction for how I want to shape my future career.”

Utilizing longitudinal patient data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. study, Guo has investigated how changes in cardiovascular health during young adulthood can impact an individual’s risk for developing cardiovascular disease later in life. His work has been published in Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and he presented his work at academic conferences around the country in 2024.

“My faculty mentors were really instrumental in guiding me through how to actually look at the data, how to make sense of it, how to understand what patterns are telling us, and then really being creative in how we leverage the techniques that we have to answer the question that we developed,” Guo said.

In addition to AOSC and RISE, medical students can perform mentored research projects over a span of 10 weeks through Feinberg’s T35 Summer Research Program, which is directed by Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, the John Benjamin Murphy Professor and vice chair of Research and Innovation in the Department of Surgery. The program, funded by the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, also provides mentoring and educational opportunities for participating students.

“This program aims to show students that if you surround yourself with successful clinician-scientists, immerse yourself into their dry or wet labs, and are open to learn from them, being an NIH-sponsored clinician-scientist is not only very feasible, but extremely satisfying as a career,” Ladner said.

The success of independent student research at Feinberg, Feinstein said, would not be possible without continued mentorship and support from Feinberg faculty across the medical school.

“Positive role modeling, as well as support in terms of availability and resources, is absolutely crucial. We are fortunate to be at an institution where this is valued at school, departmental, and divisional levels, such that faculty mentors tend to be quite aligned with the mission to train the next generation of health and science leaders,” Feinstein said. “Our aim is to continue to grow as a nationally recognized place where aspiring physician scientists come knowing that they can have a rigorous, uniquely well-supported training,” Feinstein said.

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