Justin Belsky is turning his own experience with vision problems and a corneal transplant into a career of helping others with similar problems.

Mr. Belsky, 22, completed his undergraduate work at Michigan State University. The West Bloomfield native, who now resides in Royal Oak, is a second-year medical student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

He became interested in ophthalmology when he began to lose his vision near the end of high school. He said a corneal transplant two years ago taught him "to value vision.”

“It seemed like overnight I lost my vision, and the impact it has had on my life has driven me to help people see again. If it wasn't for the corneal specialists who worked with me, I would be legally blind,” he said. “I want to spread my message that vision is a gift and should be valued. It can be taken away at any time for no apparent reason. I was lucky enough to have it restored, but for many, this is not an option. Hopefully my future research will narrow the gap between those who have no cure and those who do.”

Mr. Belsky is spending the summer performing research at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, examining the effectiveness of intraocular pressure measures in abnormal corneas. Mr. Belsky, who selected WSU for his medical education because of the diversity of the clinical setting, secured the Wilmer position through persistence. He sent e-mails to doctors across the country who perform cornea research, and the institute took him on for the summer.

The “gold standard” in measuring intraocular pressure is only accurate for normal corneas, he explained. In unusual corneas, the measuring standard is inaccurate, a factor in incorrect diagnosis and treatment for glaucoma. His research involves looking at various parameters of the cornea and seeing how inaccurate the standard is in measuring abnormal corneas. The work will include inserting a device into the eye during surgery, determining the true value and comparing it with the standard.

“In short, I am looking to see how inaccurate the gold standard in measuring intraocular pressure is with the true intraocular pressure in abnormal corneas,” he explained. “This will give physicians a better indication of when to start treatment for glaucoma and other various diseases.”

Involved in the Humanistic Medicine program and Vision Detroit – a program that seeks to screen the Detroit population for serious eye conditions that need immediate attention – he wants to wants to join an academic institution to pursue his passion for research, specializing in the cornea.

The friendly setting at the School of Medicine has been a welcome surprise for Mr. Belsky. “I thought medical school would be cutthroat. Although competition between the class exists, everyone for the most part is willing to help you get through this.”

Kathleen Dass doesn’t want what happened to her grandmother to happen to her future patients. With her father (an internist), Ms. Dass has had a lifelong interest in medicine. But it was a misdiagnosis of her grandmother that cemented her decision to pursue a medical career.

“My love of medicine solidified when I was in high school and I watched a physician show very poor bedside manner to my maternal grandmother, attributing her headaches to something that comes with old age. Instead, she died a week later due to brain hemorrhaging,” she explained. “I never wanted a patient or their relatives to go through what my family went through.”

She immediately began shadowing physicians in different disciplines, taking classes at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital, and volunteering in the emergency room at St. Joseph Mercy hospital in Pontiac and Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital. “I was inspired by the drive and compassion all of the physicians had that I encountered. I learned to integrate the science of medicine with the art of medicine.”

Dass, who just completed her first year of medical school, is from Bloomfield Hills. The 24-year-old completed her undergraduate studies at Wayne State University.

Based on her clinical experiences thus far, Ms. Dass said she is drawn to the field of neurology, but is also interested in a primary care-related field, with a possible fellowship in cardiology or endocrinology.

Ms. Dass recently received an honorable mention in Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Excellence in Research Award for Students. The award goes to a graduate student who is the first author on a paper. She submitted a copy of her paper, “Evolving role of uPA/uPAR system in human cancers,” as well as a letter of recommendation from the professor she worked with, Dr. Fazlul Sarkar of the Karmanos Cancer Center. The paper was also published in Cancer Treatment Reviews.

Ms. Dass served this year as the student chairwoman for “the most successful” HealthFOCUS (urban pediatrics) conference in the history of the program. She helped plan the World Health Student Organization’s global health week, as well as coordinate programs locally in the beginning of the year. She also served as secretary for the American Medical Association and attended the 2007 Michigan State Medical Society House of Delegates meeting as a student representative. She participates in community health fairs, and plans to continue to do so after graduation.

“I see myself completing residency and helping my local community by continuing to work at free local health fairs,” she said. “Also, I want to be in a position where I can help patients to my fullest potential, regardless of their insurance situation, just as I have seen other physicians do.”

As an undergraduate at Wayne State University, Ms. Dass served as the student coordinator for the B.S./M.D. program, MedStart. That position allowed her to attend seminars taught by medical school professors, converse with WSU-associated physicians and explore Scott Hall monthly. “There was such a comfortable and intellectually-engaging environment that I couldn’t imagine myself elsewhere,” she said.

His own experience with epilepsy is leading Erik Brown to a career in the field of neurology, with the possibility of playing a role in international medicine.

The first year M.D./Ph.D. student became interested in neurology while in high school because of his own experiences with epilepsy. “I decided that I definitely wanted to go to medical school one day while working as an electrical engineering co-op student with the biomedical company Cyberonics, makers of the Vagus Nerve Stimulator,” he said.

Mr. Brown, 26, is originally from Allen Park. Now living in Dearborn, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan.

This year, Mr. Brown captured first place in M.D./Ph.D. competition and first place in the 2008 Medical Student Research Symposium with research he conducted with Dr. Eishi Asano, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology in the Electrophysiology/Neurosurgery departments of Children's Hospital of Michigan at Children's Hospital of Michigan. A manuscript associated with the research, on which Mr. Brown is first author, was accepted for publication by the journal NeuroImage.

The Medical Student Research Symposium competition requires participants to orally present their research within 15 minutes to a diverse audience. The best presentations are technical but understandable.

The goal of the research, associated with the School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, was to determine whether gamma-oscillations induced by auditory communication localized language areas in pre-surgical evaluation of children with focal epilepsy. Four children with intractable left-hemispheric focal epilepsy who underwent two-stage epilepsy surgery were studied. All patients underwent preoperative MRI, extraoperative electrocorticography and language mapping using neurostimulation as well as gamma-oscillations. Patients received 60 question-and-answer tasks that were recorded and integrated with ECoG. The ECoG traces were transformed into a time-frequency matrix, enabling analysis of gamma-oscillations in relation to the onset of vocalization of answers. The research concluded that recording of auditory-language-induced gamma-oscillations may identify cortex participating in language activity consisting of comprehension and word retrieval followed by vocalization. The technique may supplement language mapping by neurostimulation in children with focal epilepsy.

After graduation, Mr. Brown, who also has a developing interest in emergency medicine, plans to immerse himself in a neurology or neurosurgery residency. He also wants to keep active in international medicine.

Mr. Brown served as team captain of a World Health Student Organization trip to Costa Rica in March. He raised more than $2,000 and a small truckload of donated supplies. In Costa Rica, Brown, who now serves on the WSHO board as a trip leader for next year’s mission, performed duties from packing medications to taking patient histories.

He said that one aspect of medical school that has surprised him is the level of student involvement in extracurricular activities. He plays intramural ice and floor hockey, as well taking part in the Humanistic Medicine Co-curricular program. The program strives to expose medical students to experiences other than coursework, such as volunteering and shadowing. Brown explained that the program helps medical students further their knowledge of different forms of Complementary Alternative Medicine such as yoga, tai-chi, healing touch and acupuncture.

Dan Barkmeier recently received a Pre-doctoral Research Training Fellowship from the Epilepsy Foundation of America. The fellowship includes $20,000 to continue his work in research that could lead to promising new seizure medications.

“This is a major milestone for me because it is the first time I have successfully received an external funding award,” said Mr. Barkmeier, 26. “The goal of this project is to better understand the molecular aspects of epilepsy and to use that knowledge to develop new therapeutics for the disease.”

Originally from Champaign, Ill., and now living in Romulus, Mr. Barkmeier is a M.D/Ph.D. student working in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Loeb, in the Department of Neurology, Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. Dr. Loeb is the associate director of the School of Medicine’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics. The award will help Mr. Barkmeier develop a new animal model of epilepsy focusing on the epileptic spikes between seizures. A challenge facing researchers developing medications is that animal models of epilepsy often fail to mimic the human disorder. The closer the animal model to the human form, the more likely a new drug developed using that model will work in human, explained Dr. Loeb.

Previous research on human epileptic brain tissue, Mr. Barkmeier said, revealed specific molecular pathways activated in epilepsy. However, the amount of activation of these pathways did not correlate with the amount of seizures, but rather with the amount of interictal spikes the patient had. The spikes are abnormal discharges that occur between epileptic seizures. They are smaller than seizures, but occur much more often.

“We believe that these small spikes may be essential for abnormally activating the pathways that characterize epilepsy,” he explained. “To prove this, I have developed an animal model of interictal spiking that replicates the molecular changes seen in human epilepsy. With a model of both the electrical and molecular characteristics of epilepsy, we have a powerful system to test targeted therapeutics for epilepsy.”

Mr. Barkmeier, who has completed two years of medical school and is now in the second year of the Ph.D. program, received his bachelor’s degree in science from Illinois Wesleyan University.

“I grew up surrounded by medicine, since both my parents and many of my relatives are physicians. Even so, I was not pushed into it as a career, but came to it on my own because it was a chance to apply the fascinating aspects of biology in a way that improved lives,” Mr. Barkmeier said.

He explained that he has always been interested in neuroscience “because it is the brain that holds all of our complexity, personality and consciousness. Clinically, I find the diagnostic part of medicine most fun, so I plan to combine these interests into a neuroradiology specialty.”

After graduation, Mr. Barkmeier plans to complete a radiology residency as well as a postdoctoral research fellowship. He then wants to divide his time between clinical work and establishing his own neuroscience research laboratory.

By selecting Wayne State University for his medical education, he knew he "would get outstanding neuroscience research as well as a nationally-recognized clinical training program.”

He is also impressed with Wayne State University's student life.  “Wayne State medical students are collegial, supportive and genuinely passionate about helping the community,” he said.

Her medical education and volunteer work in the city of Detroit is leading Erica Huddleston to a career as a family physician dedicated to serving urban areas.

Ms. Huddleston, 25, is a native of Indianapolis, Ind. The second-year student now lives in Detroit. She completed her undergraduate degree at Indiana State University, majoring in Life Science. She then attended a master of science in medical science program at Indiana University/Purdue University Indiana.

Her research internship at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis led to the March 2007 publication of “Optimal End-Organ Protection for Thoracic and Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Using Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest” in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Ms. Huddleston became interested in medicine at an early age.

“As a child, I was always fascinated by the doctor's medical equipment,” she said. “My pediatrician even allowed me to participate in my check-ups and fiddle with the tongue depressors and stethoscope. It was then that I decided that I wanted to be a doctor.”

She began taking part in job shadowing opportunities in a variety of departments. However, it was her experience in a pediatrics ward under the supervision of Dr. Francis Gray at Wishard Hospital, that she became interested in that field.

“Dr. Gray is an African-American woman who opened my eyes to the endless array of opportunities that are available not only for African-Americans, but for women in general,” Ms. Huddelston explained. “Dr. Gray had a special connection with each of her patients. She knew more about their lives than what was listed on the chart; she connected with them on a personal level. Her compassion and love for her career inspired me to want to be able to share that same personal connection with my patients. She showed me that medicine requires so much more than just textbook knowledge.”

Ms. Huddleston quickly knew she belonged at the School of Medicine. “Entering a class of 300 students was a bit intimidating. However, on the first day, I knew that this school was different. The sheer diversity of our class was outstanding, and the warmth and generosity of my fellow classmates has been amazing. I now feel as if I am part a family of talented future physicians.”

Her interest in attending the School of Medicine was piqued more than three years ago when she was informed about the facilities by an undergraduate premedical advisor.

“I soon began to do some of my own research on the school and found that it had many of the qualities that I wanted in my pursuit for higher education,” she said. “Not only was the mission statement in compliance with what I believed was necessary for a solid education and a successful career as a physician, but the diversity of the school and its students also provided a great atmosphere that was not available at other colleges and universities.”

Ms. Huddleston serves as co-coordinator for Covenant House Michigan, a shelter for homeless and at-risk youths that also provides GED and job training. She has also served as a mentor and tutor for the residents for two years. In addition, she works with the YDI Drug Prevention Program to educate elementary school students on the hazards of drugs. She is a member of the Black Medical Association and the PULSE Academy; the Social and Hospitality Committee; the SNMA National Conference Committee; Reach Out to Youth; the High School Apprenticeship Program; and the Health Unit on Davison Avenue Clinic.

Because of her SOM experience in the Detroit community, Ms. Huddleston has decided to continue her medical career in primary care as a family physician serving urban areas.

The experience of watching doctors successfully battle his mother’s breast cancer is leading a Wayne State University School of Medicine student to a career in radiation oncology.

Brandon Mancini, 22, said he felt strongly about a career in medicine while in high school. He was attracted to radiation oncology when his mother developed breast cancer in 2002. She is now in her sixth year of remiss.

“The amazing team effort that I witnessed between my mother and the doctors and nurses who treated her has forever allied my heart with the field of medicine, and more specifically radiation oncology,” he said. “I have such a respect and enthusiasm for the field, and I am looking forward to providing my patients with the same care that was given to my mother.”The first-year medical student who now lives on campus is originally from Canton. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan.

The Class of 2011 president also serves as a student representative on the Medical Alumni Association Board. He is one of only nine first-year medical school students elected into the Aesculapians Honor Society this year. The honorary service organization is devoted to the city of Detroit and the School of Medicine. In addition, he tutors children ages 5 to 12 at the Wayne County Family Center as part of Project H. He was recently elected a clinic co-coordinator for Project H, with the responsibility of managing the health clinic operations at the center.  He also participates in Code Blue, a group that delivers lessons about various topics, including health, fitness, career planning and goal setting, to children at a Highland Park elementary school.

Mr. Mancini said the diversity of the School of Medicine student body was a pleasant surprise. “There are students of all ages, backgrounds and cultures, and it has been such an amazing experience to interact and form friendships with such a great group of people,” he said.

He explained that he chose to pursue his medical education at the Wayne State University School of Medicine because he found the opportunities the school offers to assist and treat an urban population appealing.

“Even with my limited clinical exposure thus far in my medical school career, I have found it very rewarding to interact with patients and understand the difficulties associated with providing healthcare to an urban population,” he said.

After graduation, Mr. Mancini sees himself as a radiation oncologist, raising a family, and volunteering and improving the community he will live in.