School of Medicine

Wayne State University School of Medicine
Dan King
Apr 14, 2009
Dan King, a third-year student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, decided to pursue a medical career because he had an abiding interest in cutting-edge science. King will come pretty close to that edge with his acceptance into a year-long fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program.

Also known as the Cloister Program, the fellowship was established in 1985 to give outstanding students at U.S. medical schools the opportunity to receive research training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The program is offered to 40 students who are interested in receiving elite research training and who have demonstrated an interest in pursuing a research-driven career. The fellowship offers a year-long immersion research experience at the National Institutes of Health sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Students live, conduct research and attend lectures at the NIH campus. The first month students may rotate among labs they find attractive, and then spend the year working with a principal investigator at a lab of their choosing. The program is also associated with a doctorate degree program, something King said he may take advantage of “if the opportunity feels right.”

King, 26, originally from Long Island, N.Y., completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan. He became interested in a career in medicine while in college in Ann Arbor.

“In college I read an article in Scientific American about cancer stem cells and thought, ‘I'd like to learn about that,’ so I joined a stem cell research lab at U of M Hospital,” he said. “I realized that I very much enjoyed doing medical research and became drawn to the fact that the work we were doing was furthering the field and the hope that this work could help save lives someday. Motivated by that mindset, the study of medicine seemed like a noble way to live one's life, and I decided to apply.”

King’s primary interest now is stem cell medicine. Pluripotency – the ability to create undifferentiated stem cells without the need of embryos -- will revolutionize the field, he said. “For example, growing in vitro cardiac stem cells to replace dead heart tissue; it's an exciting prospect that will hugely impact cardiology. There's also incredible work being done with computational genomic sequencing, which will make individualized medicine a reality someday soon. It's possible my future work will fall in one of these two areas, or perhaps combine them in some way.”

During his Year III elective month, King began a research project at Henry FordHospital, working with Sandra Rempel, Ph.D., senior scientist in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center, and adjunct professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology. That research involves the study of a fatal brain cancer called glioblastoma. The focus is the study of a protein called SPARC, which gives glioblastoma an especially invasive, and thus deadly, character, he said.

“SPARC is a good target for study because if we can understand how to prevent invasion we will go far to decrease mortality from this cancer,” he explained. “Our lab collaborates with a lab at the National Institutes of Health, where intense work is being done to characterize glioblastoma from a genomic point of view. Certainly, it would be exciting to visit early during my fellowship, see what projects are available and maybe join that lab to continue the fight against brain cancer.”

King founded the stem cell club at the School of Medicine, which led to a “pretty successful” umbilical cord stem-cell donation program in Detroit. He also serves as chairman of the national American Medical Association-medical student committee’s Committee on Scientific Issues, a role that had him running student poster sessions at AMA conferences.

“I truly believe that a life in effective research can only be accomplished by recognizing good opportunities as they arise and making quality choices when at all possible,” King said when asked about his career plans after medical school. “If I had to guess, I'd say it would be nice to find a strong residency program in internal medicine and then maybe an oncology research fellowship. But, I'm going to keep an open mind until the opportunity seems right.”

King said he chose Wayne State University because of the school’s reputation for providing quality clinical training in a unique area of need. “Although I have an interest in research, I believe it's important for any physician to develop empathy and bedside-manner. These skills are nurtured in a program that emphasizes clinical experience. I also knew that WSU offered an M.D./Ph.D. program, which was a path that I had considered, and thought that might be an option worth pursuing,” he said.