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No summer break for med students
by Holly Auer
Of the Post and Courier Staff
May 16, 2005
Young researchers to study mysteries of brain during time off
In a season typically dedicated to frosty drinks, suntan lotion and mindless beach reading, students at the Medical University of South Carolina are using that precious free time to buckle down and unravel the mysteries of medical sciences.
Curious young researchers sign on for two or three months of intensive investigation each year, which this summer includes a project that will produce pictures of how the brain works when the hand puts pen to paper.
"These days, it's like there's something wrong with you when you decide to do something other than just chill," said Dr. Bernard Maria, who serves as executive director of MUSC's Children's Research Institute and has been involved in summer research projects for more than a decade. "It's an imprinting moment, a defining time for what you ultimately do down the road."
Freed from the pressures of the classroom, the students have one goal in mind: Discovery. They can't be sure where their work will lead, but the time provides a crucial link between the laboratory and medicine's clinical settings.
The programs are a growing draw for students between their first and second year of medical school — their only summer off during their four-year program — but recent college graduates, master's degree students, and even middle-schoolers are all part of work being conducted at the institute this summer.
Among the team's quests: finding ways to control brain tumors' invasion of other parts of the nervous system, evaluating recommended treatment for common conditions affecting children's nervous systems, and exploring the roots of a genetic balance and coordination disorder called Joubert Syndrome.
Another study aims to map brain activity in children with handwriting difficulties, a disorder called dysgraphia that infringes on the ability to learn and communicate. Researchers will study children via MRI images that illustrate the neural paths involved in writing and magnets that stimulate the parts of the brain that control motor functions.
The students hope their work will lead to real-world solutions for schools. It's "bench-to-classroom" research, which is new territory in the science world.
Ginger Culyer Daughtery, a first-year medical student at MUSC, taught high school for seven years before she decided to become a doctor. Her work as a teacher constantly reminded her that children with learning disabilities often have great minds, but accessing their ideas can be a struggle.
Visual problems and disorders like dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder muddy the normal communication process, making it hard for students to complete assignments and for teachers to evaluate their work. Dysgraphia often overlaps with those problems.
"A lot of these kids can have a great story in their heads, but they can't write it down," she said. "It's not fair to penalize them when there's something wrong with their brain between thinking of it and getting their hand to move."
The MUSC researchers will work with students at Trident Academy, a Mount Pleasant school for children with normal to high IQs and learning disabilities. Of its 165 students, teachers estimate 20 to 40 of them struggle with handwriting.
Maria's 11-year-old son Alex attends the school, which spurred the partnership with the institute. Tami Smith, a teacher at Trident Academy, will also be a member of the research team this summer.
The solution most often used for kids with handwriting troubles is to provide them a computer. But educators know that's a stop-gap measure. The new version of the SAT, for instance, includes a writing portion that may not allow for special accommodations, and there likely won't be a computer on hand when it's time to fill out job applications.
"It's like saying you don't need to know your math facts because you can always carry a calculator," said Myron Harrington, Trident's headmaster. "That's going to be good until the battery goes dead."
Daughtery hopes her work will lead to better solutions for the disorder, plus a standardized way to evaluate children for the disorder. She believes many students are slipping through the cracks without getting the help they need, since there's a patchwork of different tests that are used to identify dysgraphia.
When Daughtery thinks about the other potential uses for the research, the possibilities seem limitless. Perhaps what they uncover could help people who've suffered traumatic brain injuries, or stroke victims learning to write again.
In the bigger picture, the project gives students a chance to put their book knowledge into action with patients years before they edge into the "real world" of medicine. Publication credits and project posters, which distill a study's findings into colorful graphs and charts, don't hurt either, since they're a major factor in landing coveted residency slots after medical school.
"Having the summer after first year free is just as important as all the book learning we've had," Daughtery said. "We get to learn to make good use of everything, and do something really meaningful."
Medical educators hope the summer research experience, which pays students through a combination of federal and university grants, will spur people into one of modern health care's crucial specialties, "translational" research.
That discipline demands doctors who are as expert in the lab as they are bedside. For now, the gulf between those worlds remains wide, and promising treatments hang in the middle waiting to be tested.
"We need to find people who are willing to cross that bridge," said Dr. Donald Miller, director of MUSC's summer health professionals program. "These programs allow students to really see how things work, and how oftentimes things don't work. It won't be something that just came down from on high that they accept without really understanding it."
Holly Auer covers health and medicine. She can be reached at (843) 937-5560 or hauer@postandcourier.com.
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