A dozen students from Learning Community 2170 participated in a health fair in Jefferson County on Jan. 19. The event was sponsored by the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing. The second-year students who participated were organizer Cesar Garcia-Canet, Sheldon Brown, Tyler Cobb, David Cristin, Fernando Guarderas, Ryan Humphries, Laura Irastorza, Laura McLaughlin, Oscar Roldan, Stephen Sheridan and Ross Stemmler. The first-year student was Aruna Khan. They were supervised by faculty members Jonathan Appelbaum, M.D., and Karen Myers, ARNP.

Once again medical students are helping to organize Pedaling for Parkinson’s, an indoor cycle-a-thon co-sponsored by the College of Medicine, the TMH Foundation, Sweat Therapy Fitness and the Terner Family Foundation. It’s scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 9 at Sweat Therapy, 1122 Thomasville Road, Unit 10. The second-year students involved are Paulie Bruns (director), Geami Britt, Megan Elios, Juliana Matthews, Joanna Meadors and Taaj Shelton. The first-year students are Joah Aliancy, Sarah Avila, Cashana Betterly, Alejandro Chavarriaga, Elizabeth Coughlin, Brittany DiFabio, Heather Domark, Ryan Fitzgerald, Melissa Geary, John Kanter, Elizabeth Keiner and Jason Miles. Last year the students raised $15,000, which they donated to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital’s NeuroScience Center for Parkinson’s research.

Marielys Figueroa-Sierra (Class of 2016), one of last year’s Bridge students, is also one of the authors of a paper recently published in the Journal of Viral Infections. The title is “Mechanistic study of broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against dengue virus that target the fusion loop.” The paper includes work she did as an undergraduate. The co-authors are at Duke University, the University of Virginia, the University of Georgia’s veterinary school and a hospital in Singapore.  

Sheallah Palmer (Class of 2013, Orlando Regional Campus) is having an abstract published in the Journal of Women’s Health and will go to Washington, D.C., to present at the Women’s Health Congress.

GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
Sarah Burkhart, a graduate student in the Gunjan lab, has been awarded a scholarship from the Medical Student Council representing the Department of Biomedical Sciences. This is the first time that the MSC has given Biomed the opportunity for our graduate students to apply for the award.

Elise Cope and Gina O’Neal-Moffit have each won a Dissertation Research Grant through the graduate school at FSU. Funded through the Congress of Graduate Students, the Office of the Provost and the Office of Research, the award amount is to be used for reimbursements.