Saturday, June 15, 2013

HHMI Med Into Grad Research Symposium 2013

As part of my PhD training, I am also earning a certificate in medical science through our University of Pennsylvania Med into Grad (MIG) Program, which is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).  This program is all about promoting a greater understanding of medicine in graduate education through additional classes, clinic shadowing experiences, and other opportunities.

The HHMI has funded multiple MIG programs at Universities across the country, and each year we get together with other nearby MIG program schools for a two-day symposium.  The symposium is a time for us to meet other graduate students with similar interests, learn about how other MIG programs are working, discuss our science with each other, and have some fun.  This year we met at Yale, along with students from Harvard, Columbia, and the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  The theme for this year’s meeting was ‘Personal Genomics & Personalized Medicine’, which allowed for some really cool presentations about topics that are an important future direction in medicine.