Fall 2011 - the Department of Biology - Syracuse University

Sarah, other internsand midwife, SafariOB ward’s medical unit. I learned I couldfunction in a hectic environment, whereresources were limited and the need wasoverwhelming. This was why I had cometo Africa—to learn, to challenge myself, tomake a small difference in the world.“That’s when I feel most alive,” PaulFarmer, the renowned doctor and anthropologist,has said, “when I’m helpingpeople.” I heard Farmer speak at SyracuseUniversity, and his remarks influencedme deeply. His muscular idealism and hispassionate belief that healing constitutesa basic human right spoke to me personally.That is why I have traveled to developingnations to do what I could with mylimited skills and have worked abroad andat home in communities of need. It’s notthat I expect to change the world, but I doexpect to make a difference in admittedlychallenging situations—whether it is easingmisery abroad or going up against arecalcitrant insurance company at home.In the summer of 2009, I volunteeredas a medical intern at a public clinic inCusco, Peru. While conditions were notas bare as I later encountered in Tanzania,the facility, called Belenpampa, waslocated in a dilapidated building in thecenter of the city and provided medicalcare to the city and outlying areas of Cusco.That lack of equipment was striking.If patients wanted a nurse to use gloveswhile examining them, they bought themthemselves because the clinic could notprovide them. I learned technical skills,such as dressing wounds and taking vitalsigns. The need there was great. WhenendelI arrived each morning, 50 people werelined up at the admissions counter.Closer to home, SU gave me the experienceto work in two different laboratoriesin my undergraduate career. After myfreshman year, I earned a summer undergraduateinternship program at the NationalGenome Research Institute at theNational Institutes of Health, working inDr. Eric Green’s laboratory on a researchproject based on comparative genomicswith chimpanzee and human X chromosomesequences.For my Honors thesis and Distinctionin Biology, I worked at SUNY UpstateMedical School with Dr. Mary Lou Vallanoin the Department of Neuroscienceand Physiology. Her current focus is oncerebral vasospasms, which are a narrowingor constriction of brain blood vesselscausing reduced blood flow to the brainand the death of neurons. They are oftenassociated with strokes resulting from nutrientdeprivation and are a complicationof a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoidhemorrhages (SAH) make up 7 percentof all strokes but are the most deadly,with more than a 50 percent fatality rate,particularly due to cerebral vasospasm. Todate, no therapies have proven to preventcerebral vasospasm following SAH. As alaboratory, we are looking at the differentfactors that contribute to cerebral vasospasmsand trying to determine if thereis anything that can be done to decreasetheir severity and duration. Specifically,I looked at how to characterize the vasospasmmolecularly and if there are indicatingfeatures controlling the severityand duration of the vasospasms.With graduation now over, I am excitedto take the next step. I have beenawarded an Intramural Research TrainingAward at NIH with Dr. Tom Quinn,head of the Center for Global Health atJohns Hopkins University and an activemember of the National Institute of InfectiousDisease and Allergies, and startedworking there in July. I have learned in anup-close-and-personal way that medicineis not all about gleaming newborn babiesand happy patients. It is hard work andlong hours. Inspired by Farmer’s observationthat “no one should have to die of adisease that is treatable,” I continue on,eager to undertake the challenge of a careerin medicine.Syracuse has shown me that all thesedreams are possible. As Henry DavidThoreau once said, “If you have built castlesin the air; your work need not be lost;that is where they should be. Now put thefoundations under them.” Syracuse Universityhas laid the foundation. Now, all Ihave to do is keep building.W20 THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY