Third-year medical student Michael Gorin is the 2010 winner of the prestigious Dr. Carl and Barbara Alving Endowed Biomedical Research Award.
Bestowed on the closing night of the 36th annual Eastern-Atlantic Student Research Forum, or ESRF, the award honored Gorin for his immunology research, which he presented in a poster titled, "In vivo Expansion of Allogenic Foxp3+ Regulatory Cells: A Novel Approach.''
Now in its third year, the Alving Award is made possible by a $100,000 gift that Carl Alving, M.D., a 1966 Miller School graduate, and his wife Barbara Alving, M.D., gave to annually recognize the most outstanding research achievement made by a Miller School medical student. Both noted researchers, the Alvings hope to inspire medical students to pursue careers in medical research. As such, the ESRF is an ideal platform for their award.
Hosted by the Miller School and sponsored in large part by the American Medical Association Foundation, ESRF brings together some of the brightest young minds in biomedical research. This year, 50 medical, graduate, M.D./Ph.D. students, and resident physicians from the Miller School, Harvard, Columbia, Vanderbilt and other universities across the nation, as well as from Pakistan, came to review and present original clinical and basic science research on everything from "The Role of Endogenous Cortisol Synthesis in Inflammatory and Wound Healing Response in Epidermis'' to "Association of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Depression.''
Gorin's research, which was funded by the American Cancer Society, focused on developing a new approach for expanding cells in the immune system important for tolerance in bone marrow transplants. His mentor is Robert Levy, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology.
In addition to Gorin, five other Miller school students were recognized for their research at the ESRF's Saturday night awards banquet at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. They are:
Brad Schmier, who received the award for the Best Miller School of Medicine Presentation; Taylor Schreiber, who received the first place award for Outstanding Basic Science Oral Presentation; Pooja Gupta, who received the first place award in the Outstanding Clinical Science Poster Presentation category; Kimberly Hoang, who received the second place honor for Outstanding Basic Science Poster Presentation; and Juliet Nissan, who received the second place award for Outstanding Clinical Science Poster Presentation.
Of the 21 UM students selected to present their research at ESRF, 17 were eligible for the Alving Award, which was judged by five UM faculty members. Recipients win a medal and an unrestricted personal monetary award.
Held at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the four-day international symposium featured a welcome address by Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., an awards banquet address by Jose Szapocznik, Ph.D., professor and chair of epidemiology and public health, and a keynote address by UM President Donna E. Shalala, who urged the next generation of physicians and scientists to pursue rigorous evidence-based medicine with an eye on the politics and money that drive it.
"Understand the politics behind this - that this is not simply, ‘We ought to find the best treatment and we ought to compare treatments and make sure we have the best outcomes,''' President Shalala said. "There's a lot of money in this business and you have to make sure you have the most credible research and it's published in the finest journals so people will take it seriously."
