Twenty faculty members in the Department of Medicine are serving as mentors for 25 students participating in the 2018 Herman and Gwendolyn Shapiro Summer Research Program. 

The program supports projects in basic, clinical, or translational science by students who have completed their first year of medical school, providing 50% of the total stipend paid to the student during their summer appointment. Mentors are responsible for securing matching funds for the length of the appointment (8-12 weeks). Matching funds are offered by the Department of Medicine Research Committee.

Faculty mentors and the students they are mentoring are:

• Daniel Shirley, MD, MS (Infectious Disease) mentoring Angela Ai for a project entitled, "Barriers and Facilitators to Ultrasound Probe Reprocessing in Ambulatory Care Settings."
• David Murray, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) mentoring Calvin Albrecht for a  project entitled, "Comparing the Rates of Malignancy Development in Heart Transplant Recipients between the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics."
• Amish Raval, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) mentoring Sophia Colevas for a project entitled, "Biomimetic cardiac organoid for in vitro investigation of cardiac cell-to-cell interactions" and Jacob Ellis for a project not yet titled.
• Sandesh Parajuli, MD (Nephrology) mentoring Sarah Di Bartolomeo for a project entitled, "Outcome of Pre-Transplant Melanoma in Kidney Transplant Recipients" and Stacey Rolak for a project entitled, "Clostridium difficile or Norovirus infection in a kidney transplant recipient: which diarrheal infection has worse outcomes?"
• Sana Waheed, MD (Nephrology) mentoring Vivian Gama for a project entitled, "Examining Mortality in Peritoneal Dialysis Between Native Kidney ESRD Patients and Dialysis After Graft Failure (DAGF) Patients in Association with the Variables of Age, Sex, and Other Comorbidities" and Jakob Ohman for a project entitled "Association of dialysis modality and survival in very elderly patients."
• Mark Benson, MD (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) mentoring Genti Gjyzeli for a project entitled, "Safety and Efficacy of Moderate Sedation in Super Obese Patients undergoing Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography."
• Tripti Singh, MD (Nephrology) mentoring Andrew Gregory for a project entitled, "Safety and efficacy of low vs high potassium dialysis bath for treatment of severe hyperkalemia."
• Amye Tevaarwerk, MD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Alexandra Hua for a project entitled, "Feasibility of delivering electronic health record (EHR)-based survivorship care plans and planning to cancer survivors in a community oncology practice."
• Nasia Safdar, MD, PhD (Infectious Disease) mentoring Omar Jarrett for a project entitled, "Exploring the Impact of Pet Ownership on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Colonization and the Skin Microbiome."
• Lee Eckhardt, MD, MS (Cardiovascular Medicine) mentoring Alexis Keefe for a project entitled, "The Role of Autoantibodies in Cardiac QTc Prolongation in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis."
• Ian Robins, MD PhD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Maria Leighton for a project entitled, "The effects of tumor treating fields and nab-paclitaxel in MGMT expressing and non-expressing patient derived glioblastoma stem-like cells."  
• Mary Sesto, PhD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Colleen Marken and Ethan Wilson for projects not yet titled.
• Noelle LoConte, MD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Katherine Mooney for a project entitled, "Evaluation of school-based immunization programs in Wisconsin following discontinuation of HPV vaccine supply."
• Dudley Lamming, PhD (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism) mentoring Eunhae Park for a project entitled, "Improving metabolic health through reduced consumption of specific dietary amino acids."
• Kara Goss, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) mentoring Francheska Razalan for a project entitled, "Cardiac Function and Efficiency in Young Adults Born Premature."
• Laura Maursetter, DO (Nephrology) mentoring Catherine Richardson for a project entitled, "Serum Albumin Levels as a Marker of Mortality: A Quality Improvement Analysis for Wisconsin Dialysis Patients."
• Mark Albertini, MD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Kimberly Rosenthal for a project entitled, "Immune monitoring to identify a candidate biomarker of response for dogs with melanoma being treated with intratumoral injection of the GD2-reactive hu14.18-IL2 immunocytokine."  
• Dustin Deming, MD (Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care) mentoring Chelsie Sievers for a project entitled, "Manipulation of the Tumor Microenvironment to Augment Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancers."
• Ryan Westergaard, MD, PhD, MPH (Infectious Disease) mentoring Quinton Taylor for a project entitled, "Prevalence of HIV and other infectious diseases in users of syringe exchange programs in 6 Northern Wisconsin counties."
• Cynthia Carlsson, MD, MS (Geriatrics and Gerontology) mentoring Michael Wakely for a project entitled, "Metabolomics and CSF Measurements in Pre-clinical Alzheimer's Disease."
• Christopher Crnich, MD, PhD (Infectious Disease) mentoring John Ziegler for a project entitled, "Relative Rankings of Antimicrobial Stewardship in Nursing Homes."

Resources:

• "Shapiro Summer Research Program Shapes the Future of Medical Discovery," Department of Medicine, July 13, 2017
• Shapiro Summer Research Program

Photo caption: In this file photo from 2017, Dr. Sana Waheed (left) guides medical student Savannah Vogel during her nephrology Shapiro Summer Research Program project. Photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine