Students Spend Summer Working with Scientists at LLU Health

Fifty-four high school and college students from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds presented Aug. 7 scientific papers they completed following a summer spent working with scientists and researchers from Loma Linda University (LLU) Health. The students, part of the LLU Health Disparities Research Summer Program, presented research in areas from treating traumatic brain injury to the links between hormones and cancer, during the 13th annual Health Disparities Research Symposium 2013, hosted by the Loma Linda University Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine. John Matsui, PhD, assistant dean, Biological Sciences and director of the Biology Scholars Program at UC Berkeley, gave the keynote address, “Diversity and ‘Good Science’” at the symposium. “I would describe this as a wonderful experience that allowed me to work in an actual laboratory alongside actual scientists,” said Karen Figueroa, 17, who just graduated from Ramona High School in Riverside and is planning to take up biochemistry at UCLA in the fall. Figueroa, whose parents are immigrants from Mexico, worked with researchers who studied the complications arising from Type 2 diabetes and ways that could decrease those complications. “I was not just shadowing someone, but was actively involved in doing research,” said Figueroa, whose research duties included preparing cell cultures for study. “It was incredible that they would trust a 17-year-old to work on such important stuff. I had to be extremely careful and meticulous because some of those things were very expensive.” The Loma Linda University Health Disparities Research Summer Program, now in its 13th year, is offered to promising students from disadvantaged communities by Loma Linda University Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine to encourage them to consider careers in medicine and biomedical research. The research trainees are paired with academic mentors and engage in biomedical research conducted at various science, health and clinical departments at Loma Linda University and the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center. “We are encouraged to see these students be part of important and ground-breaking research,” said Dr. Marino De Leon, director of Loma Linda University Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine. “We are especially encouraged to see how the research and academic skills learned by participating in our program are helping these students to move forward in their education, and matriculating and graduating from doctoral and graduate programs in health sciences at Loma Linda University and nationwide. This is certainly bringing needed diversity to our biomedical workforce that is critical to do better science and serve the health needs of our local and global communities,” he said.