2025 MSSRP projects – Deadline for new projects to be posted has passed.

Preceptor: Bon Trinh, PhD (2 students requested)
Department: Pathology/Cancer
Contact: Phone # (434) 243-8343, email: bontrinh@virginia.edu
Project title: Anti-leukemia activities of lead molecules in AML cell lines,
Project description: In collaboration with computer and data scientists, our group has been developing computational pipelines for the virtual screening of small molecules that target proteins associated with diseases such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The project aims to perform experimental validation of the anti-leukemia activities of lead molecules in AML cell lines, primary AML patient cells, and mouse models, which are readily available in the Trinh lab. The student(s) will have the opportunity to interact with a collaborative research team consisting of computational scientists, data scientists, medical pathologists, and experimentalists.

More details: https://tinyurl.com/trinhlaboratory
Previous successful MSSRP student story: Kevin Qiu, MD candidate
2024. First-author research paper in press on Epigenetics & Chromatin and broadcasted by ScienceCast
2024. Award winner, First-author research poster competition, Inaugural Research Computing Exhibition, UVA Research Computing Day
2024. First-author research poster presentation, ColdSpring Harbour conference on Systems Biology: Global regulation of gene expression.
2024. First-author research poster presentation, Pathology Research Day
2023. Medical Student Research Symposium with first-author poster presentation titled: “Controlling the Controller: Identification of Novel Enhancers of the Key Hematopoietic TF PU.1”

Preceptor: Melissa A. Little, PhD, MPH (2 students requested)
Department: PHS
Contact: Phone # (434) 924-1935, email: mal7uj@virginia.edu
Project title: Tobacco prevention and control
Project description: The Center for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, directed by Melissa A. Little, PhD, MPH, aims to reduce tobacco-related disparities through the development and dissemination of sustainable community-based tobacco prevention and cessation interventions. Current research programs focus on promoting tobacco and nicotine prevention among youth, and cessation among rural, low income and active-duty military populations. The MSSRP students will have the opportunity to work across a variety of community-engaged projects that directly address tobacco prevention and control. Community partners include independent pharmacies in rural Appalachia, schools, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and the U.S. military. Additionally, there is an opportunity to be a part of manuscripts and presentations resulting from the research

Preceptor:  Hongji Zhang
Department:  Surgery
Contact: Phone: (434) 243-7663, email: jhn5wx@virginia.edu
Project title:  Project details listed in description
Project description:
1. Pre-operative exercise therapy (PEx) ameliorates surgical stress-induced pro-tumorigenic inflammatory responses and sustains an anti-tumor immune microenvironment in the liver. Our recent findings demonstrate that PEx significantly attenuates liver surgery-induced hepatic inflammatory response (i.e., ischemia/reperfusion). Based on previous novel data, we hypothesize that PEx ameliorates surgical stress-induced pro-tumorigenic inflammatory responses and sustains an anti-tumor immune microenvironment in the liver. One of our publications, “Pre-operative exercise therapy triggers anti-inflammatory trained immunity of Kupffer cells through metabolic reprogramming,” was highlighted by Nature News & Views as pioneering a new milestone in research on preoperative exercise by showing that specific immunomodulatory adaptations can underlie the protection against surgically related stress (Nature Metabolism, 2021; Hepatology, 2024).

2. The role of innate immunity and inflammation in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-Fibrosis
We are looking into the mechanisms of MASH-induced Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation (Signal Transduct Target Ther, 2024), and the role of NETs in promoting inflammatory injury in MASH. As well as the development of MASH-HCC. Our work has shown that blocking NETs can change the inflammatory environment to a less favorable HCC growth condition (Hepatology, 2018), and target NETs and Treg interactions offers a potential strategy for preventing HCC in patients with MASH (Journal of Hepatology, 2021), and also targeting NETs and hepatic stellate cells can significantly improve the NASH related fibrosis (Hepatology, 2024), which provides a new therapeutic implication to prevent liver fibrosis and cancer in patients with MASH.

3. Targeting NETs to improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors for colorectal cancer
Several of our studies have signified a novel approach to target the tumor microenvironment by using DNase I alone or combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced colorectal cancer (Cancer Research 2016, 2019, 2021, Cancers, 2021). We have provided compelling evidence that shown the activation of TLR9 in fibroblastic reticular cells leads to the disappearance of Tim4+ peritoneal resident macrophages, that enhances antitumor immunity and responses to anti-PD-1 therapy in colorectal cancer peritoneal metastasis(JCI Insight, 2022), which suggests a potential new therapeutic strategy to overcome PD-1 blockade resistance.

Preceptor: Bryce Paschal, PhD
Department: Biochemistry Mol Gen
Contact: Phone (434) 243-6521, email: bmp2h@virginia.edu
Project title: Transduction pathways in prostate cancer
Project description: The Paschal lab studies signal transduction pathways in prostate cancer with a focus on the Parp enzyme family. The lab uses biochemical and molecular approaches to uncover novel pathways and therapeutic targets, which is the opportunity associated with this project. We collaborate closely with Dr. Aakrosh Ratan whose lab develops and applies computational methods to understand how changes in the genome and the epigenome influence human cancer and patient outcomes, and how this information can be leveraged for translational benefit. The current project is ideally suited for TWO medical students. The first student will use a combination of biochemical, cell culture, and mouse models (wet lab) to study how clinically-used Parp inhibitors activate CD8 T cells and kill prostate tumor cells. This includes characterizing the molecular basis of how cells use writers and readers of ADP-ribosylation, and the biochemical and gene expression outcomes of drugging these enzymes. The second student will learn and use computational methods (dry lab) to examine human and mouse gene expression data from CD8 T cells and prostate tumors (and potentially other cell and tumor types) to define the genes, pathways, and biological themes associated with Parp inhibition, with the goal of understanding which patient populations could benefit from the drug treatments.There is also an opportunity to develop and implement ChIP-seq methodologies for genome-wide mapping of transcription factors such as the androgen receptor that mediate Parp-associated gene expression. The students will work directly with the Paschal and Ratan labs, and also with our expert collaborators in immunology here at UVA. Finally, while the first project is “wet lab” and the second project is “dry lab”, we expect the two students will function as a team and be cross-trained. The project can be adapted as a project for a single student, in which case the approaches will be split between wet and dry lab, the balance driven by the student’s prior experience and interests.

Preceptor: Christopher “Cree” Gaskin, MD
Department: Radiology
Contact: Phone: (434) 989-3432, email: cmg9s@uvahealth.org
Project title: Patient-Centered Radiology Report
Project description: Radiology reports are essential medical documents but are traditionally written for clinicians, not patients. While the Cures Act has mandated to improve the accessibility of radiology results to patients, they often struggle to understand them, expressing a preference for lay-language explanations or summaries. To this end, we aim to develop a multimodal frontier model to generate “Patient-Centered Radiology Report” designed explicitly for patients. The model will be trained using a unique hyperlinked radiology image-text dataset in which radiologists have annotated specific regions in medical images (e.g., CT or MRI scans) and linked them to the corresponding descriptive text in their report. The developed models will analyze medical images and generate detailed textual interpretations and interpretable radiology reports that are not only accurate but also tailored to patient needs.

Skills required. Worked on machine learning projects before, preferably that included implementing Deep Learning models.

Preceptor: Robin LeGallo, MD
Department: Pathology
Contact: Phone: (434) 409-0069, email: rdl3s@uvahealth.org
Project title: Clinical and research opportunities in areas of anatomic and clinical pathology
Project description: The summer internship in pathology will be provide clinical and research opportunities in areas of anatomic and clinical pathology. The students will work closely with residents and faculty in patient care areas and have both observational and active roles in surgical pathology, autopsy pathology and cytopathology. They will rotate through the clinical labs including hematopathology, blood bank, microbiology, cytogenetics and molecular pathology. The students will be included in appropriate didactic sessions held for the residents but will also have separate interactive instructional activities given by both faculty and residents. There will also be interaction and collaboration with pathology graduate students where there is the expectation of cross teaching in areas of interest. Research will be encouraged in the form of either case reports or as a part of a translational research project with expectation of co-authorship. Preference will be given to but is not limited to those interested in pursuing pathology as a career.

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