Lisa MacLean: New Research Skills

by AFAR

This is Lisa McLean's second entry. Read her first MSTAR Diary to learn how she began her summer project. I’m now one month into my summer research, and I’m pleased to report that I’ve finished a draft of one paper, and I’m beginning to work on the statistical analysis of another paper. Of course, the first paper that I’ve completed still isn’t ready for publication and the data analysis for the second paper doesn’t predict any groundbreaking medical news. Everything is taking me longer than…

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Annie Levenson: Advice from Many Mentors

by AFAR

After our didactic session last night, we went out to dinner with Dr. Rudolph and a few Geriatrics Fellows.  I just finished my first year of medical school, so I have only rarely had the opportunity to interact with Fellows, especially in a social setting.  I found it really helpful to get the chance to talk to them.  We pumped them all for their stories about how they decided to go into the field (nicely, of course).  Hearing their perspective was helpful, since they had just recently made the decision to pursue geriatrics and could give…

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Kendra Reed: Learning about Osteoarthritis

by AFAR

It was a beautiful Monday morning today in San Diego, California. I was able to get a lot of work done today. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease that significantly impacts the quality of life of approximately 48 million people in the US and unfortunately most of this population is of geriatric age. I have learned that mitochondria plays a central role in many theories of cellular aging, therefore I will be looking at mitochondria and aging as it relates to osteoarthritis. This morning upon my arrival to the lab, I had two papers waiting for me. The first suggested recommendations…

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Amanda Leiter: Transitioning from Basic to Clinical Research

by AFAR

This summer, I am working on a lab project that investigates the mechanism of prostate cancer metastasis to bone. I hope to focus on gaining information to prevent morbidity and mortality associated with prostate cancer, a disease that commonly affects many aging men. I am working with Dr. Alice Levine to examine a marker of prostate cancer, prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), and how this compound affects prostate cancer metastasis to bone. At this point, Dr. Levine and I have formulated two hypotheses on this mechanism, both involving RANKL signaling (a major mediator of bone growth and metastases), but differing in…

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Sana Hava: Developing a Manuscript

by AFAR

Although I have been heavily involved in clinical research in the past, this is the first time that I am working with researchers to develop a manuscript, which will be the end product of the program. I have very little knowledge about writing manuscripts and have been busy figuring out how to approach it. Fortunately, my mentors and some students in the program are familiar with the in’s and out’s of writing these types of papers, and their advice has been really helpful in clearing up some of my confusion. But there is still a lot…

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