Year: 2020

Medical School: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Mentor: Stephanie J. London, M.D., Dr.P.H.

Current Position: University of Virginia for internal medicine residency this summer but plan to stay active in Stephanie’s group as a special volunteer.

Project: Plasma Protein Signatures and Epigenetic Changes in Asthma

Manuscripts/Publications

Smilnak GJ, White JD, Lee M, London SJ. Plasma Protein Signatures of Adult Asthma. Podium presentation at American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference, 13-18 May 2022, San Francisco, CA.

Lee M, Huan T, McCartney DL, Chittoor G, de Vries M, Lahousse L, Nguyen JN, Brody JA, Castillo-Fernandez J, Terzikhan N, Qi C, Joehanes R, Min JL, Smilnak GJ, Shaw JR, Yang CX, Colicino E, Hoang TT, Bermingham ML, Xu H, Justice AE, Xu CJ, Rich SS, Cox SR, Vonk JM, Prokić I, Sotoodehnia N, Tsai PC, Schwartz JD, Leung JM, Sikdar S, Walker RM, Harris SE, van der Plaat DA, Van Den Berg DJ, Bartz TM, Spector TD, Vokonas PS, Marioni RE, Taylor AM, Liu Y, Barr RG, Lange LA, Baccarelli AA, Obeidat M, Fornage M, Wang T, Ward JM, Motsinger-Reif AA, Hemani G, Koppelman GH, Bell JT, Gharib SA, Brusselle G, Boezen HM, North KE, Levy D, Evans KL, Dupuis J, Breeze CE, Manichaikul A, London SJ. 2022. Pulmonary Function and Blood DNA Methylation: A Multiancestry Epigenome-Wide Association Meta-analysis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 206(3):321-336. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202108-1907OC. PMID: 35536696; PMCID: PMC9890261. [Abstract Lee M, Huan T, McCartney DL, Chittoor G, de Vries M, Lahousse L, Nguyen JN, Brody JA, Castillo-Fernandez J, Terzikhan N, Qi C, Joehanes R, Min JL, Smilnak GJ, Shaw JR, Yang CX, Colicino E, Hoang TT, Bermingham ML, Xu H, Justice AE, Xu CJ, Rich SS, Cox SR, Vonk JM, Prokić I, Sotoodehnia N, Tsai PC, Schwartz JD, Leung JM, Sikdar S, Walker RM, Harris SE, van der Plaat DA, Van Den Berg DJ, Bartz TM, Spector TD, Vokonas PS, Marioni RE, Taylor AM, Liu Y, Barr RG, Lange LA, Baccarelli AA, Obeidat M, Fornage M, Wang T, Ward JM, Motsinger-Reif AA, Hemani G, Koppelman GH, Bell JT, Gharib SA, Brusselle G, Boezen HM, North KE, Levy D, Evans KL, Dupuis J, Breeze CE, Manichaikul A, London SJ. 2022. Pulmonary Function and Blood DNA Methylation: A Multiancestry Epigenome-Wide Association Meta-analysis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 206(3):321-336. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202108-1907OC. PMID: 35536696; PMCID: PMC9890261.]

The NIEHS Medical Student Research Fellowship provided an excellent opportunity to conduct biomedical research that meaningfully supplemented my medical school education. I was assigned an appropriately challenging project and my mentor (Dr. Stephanie London) allowed me to be autonomous while still giving appropriate guidance. I was able to develop greater proficiency in biostatistics and coding in multiple languages, skills that will certainly be useful in my future research career. I also contributed to multiple publications as a member of Dr. London’s group and am finalizing a first-author manuscript describing the work that was done during my fellowship. I would strongly recommend this program."