MEnTOR

Medical Enrichment Through Opportunities in Research

MEnTOR

Medical Enrichment Through Opportunities in Research

MEnTOR — Medical Enrichment Through Opportunities in Research — is a summer research experience for medical students. MEnTOR provides National Institutes of Health-funded eight-week research traineeships to selected students who have just completed their first year of the doctor of medicine program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

Why a summer research opportunity for medical students?

The experience can help prepare students for a career in academic medicine, through which physicians can combine scientific discovery with clinical insight to drive medicine forward. Studies have showed that medical students who took part in an NIH-funded summer research-training program showed a significant increase in their self-efficacy for research. Even if research is not a long-term career goal, understanding research methodology and instrumentation will enhance a future physician’s ability to analyze scientific advances critically.

Why EPIC?

EPIC provides an outstanding environment for a T35 training program. Our faculty researchers study eukaryotic pathogens that cause some of the most devastating and intractable diseases of humans, including malaria, amoebic dysentery, African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, toxoplasmosis and fungal meningitis. The impact of these diseases is immense. One child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. Other protozoans and parasitic worms chronically infect approximately one-third of the world’s population. Over one billion people each year suffer from fungal infections. While the global impact of these diseases is high, these microbes impact Southeastern U.S. as well. Children have died from amebic meningitis after swimming in lakes. No longer limited to Central and South America, Chagas disease is causing an increased disease burden (primarily cardiac disease). Thus, work on eukaryotic microbial pathogens is important, having both a local and global impact on health.

EPIC’s ideas are getting funded. EPIC faculty investigators have received more than $20 million in external funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association. EPIC research is being published in high profile peer-reviewed journals and presented at prominent national and international meetings.

EPIC is creating a legacy of scientific inquiry by training the next generation of scientists. Nearly 80 graduate and undergraduate researchers are currently training in EPIC labs. Former undergraduate researchers have gone on to distinguished medical and graduate schools. Students who have earned Ph.D.s in EPIC labs are now postdoctoral research associates in leading biomedical research labs in the U.S.

EPIC has state-of-the-art facilities. EPIC’s laboratory suites are well equipped with all the apparatus and resources needed for cutting-edge molecular, cellular, biochemical, genetic, and genomics approaches to study important eukaryotic pathogens.

hyphal growth
chris injecting
spreading plates

2023 MEnTOR Trainees

IMG 7849
Abby Kammerer
Michelle Ozog

Noah White

Dr. Kerry Smith’s Lab

Second to last step: Understanding enolase inhibitors’ effect on fungal pathogen growth

Abby Kammerer

Dr. Cheryl Ingram-Smith’s Lab

Impact of heat stress and glucose deprivation on encystation of Entamoeba histolytica

Michelle Ozog

Dr. Cheryl Ingram-Smith’s Lab

Impact of heat stress and glucose deprivation on encystation of Entamoeba histolytica

Luis Sanchez Ferrer
Sierra Gurtler
Christian James

Luis Sanchez Ferrer

Dr. Lesly Temesvari’s Lab

Assessing an actin-binding protein, thymosin β-4, as a treatment of Acanthamoeba Keratitis

Sierra Gurtler

Dr. Lukasz Kozubowski’s Lab

Everywhere all at once: The effects of azole antifungals on Cryptococcus growth

Christian James

Dr. Meredith Morris’s Lab

Analysis of TbSETD binding to Pex19 for potential drug therapies

Murphy Miller

Murphy Miller

Dr. Alexis Stamatikos’s Lab

Infecting cultured macrophages with Trypanosoma brucei causes decreased ABCA1-dependent cholesterol efflux

Luis Sanchez Ferrer receiving award for best oral presentation
Luis Sanchez Ferrer was awarded Best Overall Oral Presentation.