On Saturday, Brown’s American Physician Scientists Association chapter held its third annual conference at the Warren Alpert Medical School.
The event aimed to share physician-scientists’ research in patient care and provide students with an opportunity to network with peers and presenters, said Anna Kimata ’22 MD/PhD’30, the president of Brown’s APSA chapter.
The event began with a keynote speech by Jack Elias, the senior vice president of health affairs. Elias’s talk centered around his specific work with CHI3L1, a protein that, when elevated, plays an important role in cancer growth by inhibiting cell death. This process, Elias explained, is crucial in controlling cancer progression. Anti-CHI3L1 therapies and other CHI3L1 inhibitors have the potential to be “powerful, multi-mechanistic” therapeutics against cancer, he explained.
Elias also advised students to stay curious and take initiative in their academic and research journey to discover their career interests. “You’ll never know what you’ll find until you look,” Elias said.
His address was followed by two workshops: one featuring an MD/PhD career panel focused on the application process for prospective students and another focusing on the potential applications of and concerns about the growing influence of AI in research and medicine.
Yumiko Imai ’26, who attended the MD/PhD career panel, thought the workshop was valuable for those considering career options in medicine or research.
Two student researchers also presented at the conference.
Alex Wong ’18 MD/PhD ’27 used machine learning tests to trial new drug combinations targeting cancer.
Jacob Marglous ’21 MD/PhD ’28 researched African malaria parasites, which spread a deadly virus responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people each year in sub-Saharan Africa. Marglous developed a model to detect copy number variations — when the parasites’ genomes are duplicated or deleted — allowing researchers to better understand how these variations impact the survival of the parasitic species.
The conference concluded with talks from two physician-scientists who shared their research work and advice for attendees. Patrick McGann, the director of the Lifespan Sickle Cell Program of Rhode Island, discussed his research on ensuring health equity for individuals affected by sickle cell disease.
When McGann learned about sickle cell disease during his education, “nobody talked about race or racism, even though it very clearly affected a minoritized population,” he said.
McGann and his team have led projects looking to address disparities in the lack of access to disease-modifying therapies in African countries.
Stephanie Chow Garbern, the director of medical student research at Warren Alpert, closed the conference by sharing her work in reducing global health equities for children affected by sepsis, a condition characterized by “life-threatening organ dysfunction” as a result of the body’s improper response to infection.
Despite working on these projects for over eight years, she anticipates more than a decade of work ahead of her, bridging the world of science and medicine for improved patient care.
“Sometimes I feel as a doctor, as one person, I can’t do a lot,” Garbern said. “Research is what allows me to feel that I can make a change beyond just myself, and beyond the patient in front of me.”
Jonathan Kim is a senior staff writer covering Science and Research. He is a first-year student from Culver City, California planning to study Public Health or Health and Human Biology. In his free time, you can find him going for a run, working on the NYT crossword or following the Dodgers.
