The WCMC-Q Student Summer Research Program

In 2003, WCMC-Q sent its first group of pre-medical students to work with researchers at Cornell’s main campus in Ithaca. Since then, the summer research program has become well established, with increasing numbers applying for fellowships. It is now open to medical students and those who have completed the two-year Pre-medical Program.

This summer, 17 students from the Classes of 2009 and 2010 travelled to the US to take part in research, the majority of them selected by competition for summer research fellowships funded by WCMC-Q.

They spent up to ten weeks working with teams of investigators in the University’s research labs. The teams comprised a wide range of personnel, including faculty, post-docs, graduate students and staff.

Students from the Class of 2010 were based at Cornell’s main campus in Ithaca, where they joined research teams in a number of departments, from physics to molecular biology and genetics to veterinary sciences.

Another group, from the Class of 2009, were based at the Medical College in New York, where they worked in the labs of top researchers including Dr. Ronald Crystal, professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine, and Dr. Shahin Rafii, the Arthur Belfer Professor of Genetic Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Since 2005, there have also been opportunities to carry out research in Doha. Last year, three medical students explored worldwide population differences in lumbar bone mineral density in women and compared these findings to those from women in the region.

This year, two students from the Class of 2009 joined in a groundbreaking investigation into gene expression and lung disease, conducted between Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and Doha, and Qatar’s Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). Supervised by Dr. Lotfi Chouchane, professor of genetic medicine at WCMC-Q, they took part in clinical work, lab procedures and data analysis. As the project is ongoing, it offers opportunities for continued research experience during the year.

This kind of experience is an important part of medical students’ education, explained Dr. Crystal.

“I firmly believe that it’s very important for them to get involved in this translational research, because you can’t read the medical literature now unless you understand science. You can’t understand science unless you have experience doing it,” he said.

Dr. Crystal also noted that WCMC-Q students have made an excellent impression: “My experience of the medical students is that they are very smart, they work hard and they are very focused. It’s a pleasure having them work with us.”