Medical Student Research Opportunities
The Department of Surgery has investigators in every division who can act as mentors in a variety of research areas, including basic science, clinical trials, health services and translational research.
Name: Ginny Bumgardner
Email: ginny.bumgardner@osumc.edu
Department: Surgery, Division of Transplantation
Lab Manager/Dept Contact: Jason Zimmerer
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Email: jason.zimmerer@osumc.edu
Preferred method of Contact: Lab Manager/Dept Contact Email
Previous Mentoring: Yes (funded)
Research Description: The laboratory focuses on research relevant to transplant immunobiology, using experimental models of pancreatic islet and hepatocyte (liver cell) transplantation.
Specific areas of Research Emphasis: Immunology; Transplantation
Name: Daniel Eiferman
Email: daniel.eiferman@osumc.edu
Department: Surgery
Lab Manager/Dept Contact: Danella Jolly
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Email: Danella.Jolly@osumc.edu
Preferred Method of Contact: Faculty Email
Previous Mentoring: No
Category of research: Translational
Research Description: Our research efforts are focused on the safety and efficacy of Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), innovative bariatric surgery, resolution of co-morbid conditions in the bariatric population, treatment and resolution of GERD and Barrett's Esophagus, and analysis of surgical outcomes data. Moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) elicits immediate inflammatory events in the brain associated with acute cognitive, motor, and behavioral impairments. There is mounting clinical evidence that increased brain inflammation after TBI underlies both immediate as well as long-term complications. To date, however, there are no effective pro-active treatment strategies for TBI. In a mouse model of fluid percussion injury (FPI) we show that a moderate TBI promotes microglia activation, neuroinflammation (e.g., cytokine expression, macrophage trafficking, edema) and acute complications in motor coordination and behavior. Thus, our primary objective is to attenuate TBI-induced inflammation using a safe, effective, and expedient therapy. We propose intervention with methlene blue (MB) immediately after TBI will reduce neuroinflammation and improve the functional recovery. MB is an anti-inflammatory agent that is used clinically for the treatment of sepsis and ischemia. We show preliminary data that intravenous (IV) infusion of MB reduced brain edema and attenuated microglial activation (IL-1β expression) 24 h after TBI. These reductions were associated with improvement in TBI-induced deficits in motor coordination, locomotion and behavior evident up to one week after TBI. Our preliminary data also indicate that MB IV therapy reduced the presence of primed (MHC II+) microglia in the brain 30 days post injury (dpi). Therefore, goal of this investigation is to determine the degree to which immediate intervention with MB (25 minutes after injury) limits TBI-induced neuroinflammation, acute cognitive/behavioral impairments, and development of primed microglia.
Specific areas of Research Emphasis: Trauma; Immunology; Neuroscience
Name: Renzhi Han
Email: renzhi.han@osumc.edu
Department: Surgery
Lab Manager: Erin Haggard
Lab Manager Email: erin.haggard@osumc.edu
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Phone: 614-293-6313
Preferred Method of Contact: Faculty Email
Previous Mentoring: No (never applied)
Category of research: Translational
Research Description: Dr. Han's research focuses on genetic diseases affecting skeletal muscle and heart. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying muscular dystrophy and associated cardiomyopathy, and develops novel genome-editing therapies for treating them.
Specific areas of Research Emphasis: Heart Disease, Molecular Virology, Gene Therapy, and Musculoskeletal Disorders
Name: Zhiwei Hu
Email: zhiwei.hu@osumc.edu
Department: Surgery
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Phone: 614-685-4693
Preferred Method of Contact: Faculty Email
Previous Mentoring: No (never applied)
Category of research: Translational
Research Description: I Zhiwei Hu, MD, PhD, is a member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC-James, where his research focuses on identifying novel oncotargets in tumor microenviroment and developing corresponding targeted therapies, including immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy and gene therapy. He has more than 20 years of experience in tumor immunology, antibody immunotherapy and neovascular-targeting therapies.
Dr. Hu came to Ohio State from Yale University. During his tenure at Yale, he and Alan Garen, Phd, co-invented and tested the first TF-targeting agent, a factor VII-IgG1Fc immunoconjugate (called ICON) with the ability to targer cancer cells, cancer stem cells and tumor neovasculature for the treatment of solid cancers. Dr. Hu holds five U.S. patents and twenty foreign patents for ICON and its uses. As a neovascular-targeting agent, ICON has shown therapeutic efficacy in preclinical studies for treating angiogenesis-dependent diseases, notable cancer, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and endometriosis. ICON has entered clincal trials for patients with macular degeneration ((Phase II) or with ocular melanoma (Phase I).
In 2010, Dr. Hu co-developed another neovascular-targeting therapeutic, called factor VII-targeted PDT (fVII-tPDT), for cancer and wet macular degeneration. Recently, he invented a second-generation TF-targeting ICON (called L-ICON) that hasserveral improvements, making it more effective than first generation ICON for immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy as monotherapy and combination therapies with immune modulatory agents and natural killer cells into the clinic for cancer patients with difficult-to-treat malignancies, including triple-negative breast cancer and advanced melanoma.
Specific areas of Research Emphasis: Cancer therapy; Immunology; Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy
Name: Kyle Perry
Email: kyle.perry@osumc.edu
Lab Manager/Dept Contact: Rebecca Dettorre
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Email: becky.dettorre@osumc.edu
Lab Manager/Dept Contact Phone: 614-293-8549
Preferred Method of Contact: Lab Manager/Dept Contact Email
Previous Mentoring: Yes (funded)
Category of Research: Clinical
Research Description: Medical students have worked on a variety of research projects in the past with General Surgery mentors, including translational, clinical trials, and outcomes research. Cohort studies may be designed, performed, and completed by a medical student with input by his/her surgeon mentor and research staff. Our surgeons are particularly concerned with patient outcomes, minimally invasive surgery techniques, cost, and obesity treatment.
Specific areas of Research Emphasis: Anesthesia/Surgery; Patient outcomes, cost