New Integrated Health Sciences and Research student cohort welcomed to Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Virginia Tech’s Integrated Health Sciences and Research Program welcomed members of its new cohort to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC recently with an orientation, tour, and dinner on the Health Sciences and Technology campus in Roanoke.

Twenty-seven new students were selected for the second year of the program, which creates a formal framework to integrate undergraduate students with the biomedical and health research taking place at the research institute. With returning students, the program now has 38 students.

Students work in the institute’s labs a minimum of 10 hours a week during the regular academic year and longer through more immersive summer experiences. They will work alongside graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral associates, and researchers on conceptualizing and carrying out research projects related to the grant-funded work in faculty members’ labs.

Five students from the 2022 inaugural group graduated in May. Clayton Lundberg, who graduated with a degree in nanomedicine, is now a first-year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Eduardo Gonzalez Cantero, who studied medicinal chemistry and nanomedicine, is starting a doctoral program at John Hopkins University, and Sumaita Arowa, who volunteered in the Warren lab, will be conducting research at the National Institutes of Health through a postbaccalaureate intramural research training award. Two other graduates are taking a gap year to get more clinical experience before applying to medical school.