DAY 2 and 3

Dr. Latifi and Marlys H. Witte, MD, professor of surgery and director of the Medical Student Research Program (MSRP) at the UA College of Medicine, led off the conference on Thursday with presentations to the Kosova medical students.  Dr. Witte spoke about medical students and what she calls medical “ignoramics” – empowering people to recognize and deal with their ignorance by asking questions -- and to translate research from bench to bedside to community.

            On Friday, four UA College of Medicine students who are MSRP participants will present their research to the Kosova medical students.  (Student research fellows in the MSRP participate in basic and clinical research with faculty and other students at various levels in laboratory and patient-care settings at the UA and other institutions throughout the world.  For more information, visit the Web site www.msrp.medicine.arizona.edu.)

            The UA students and the research that they will discuss include:

Ÿ  David Margolis and Chris Geffre (both students in the College of Medicine’s MD-PhD program who are collaborating with John Szivek, PhD, UA professor of orthopaedic surgery and director, Orthopaedic Research Laboratory), advances in cartilage tissue regeneration for osteoarthritis and cartilage/bone defects.

Ÿ  Natalie Biskup (collaborating with  Joseph Mills, MD, UA professor of surgery and chief, Section of Vascular Surgery), results in infrainguinal atherectomy (a vascular surgery procedure that removes plaque from an artery using a tiny rotating cutting blade inserted through a catheter).

Ÿ  Ron Ellsworth (collaborating with Baldassarre Stea, MD, PhD, UA professor and head, Department of Radiation Oncology), establishment of brain cancer stem cell lines for analysis of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.