Anything But Basic: Medical students gain advanced skills through Basic and Translational Research Program

Music has always been a driving force for Ryan Conard ‘23 MD’28.

“I am almost always listening to something when I can, and I know firsthand how much it can affect my mood, motivation, and experience in different settings,” he says.

Conard put that love of music to work last summer with a research project that examined the feasibility and impact of using personalized medicine as part of cardiac rehabilitation. For more than eight weeks, Conard worked closely with Wen-Chih Wu, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Brown University Health Cardiovascular Wellness and Prevention Center, and also Julianne DeAngelis, program manager for Cardiac, Pulmonary and Vascular Rehabilitation at the Brown University Health Cardiovascular Institute, on a pilot study that examined the psychological impact of personalized music following cardiac procedures.

All of it was possible thanks to the Basic and Translational Research Program (BTR) at Brown, which connects medical students with training and mentored research on cardiovascular, blood, and pulmonary diseases and related conditions.

“Being able to explore whether something I personally value could also meaningfully improve patients’ experiences made the project particularly rewarding,” Conard says.

The program, which is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, offers students a summer stipend for nine weeks to work on approved research projects of their choosing. First created in 2009, the program funds 12 students annually, and more than 130 students have completed it, says Elizabeth Harrington, PhD, associate dean for biology doctoral education, who oversees the program with Tom Bartnikas, MD, PhD, director of MD/PhD program, and Star Hampton, MD, senior associate dean of medical education.

“Students are being exposed to a variety of types of research through this program with the overall goal that this short term experience leads the student to a lifetime of research as a physician scientist,” says Harrington, a professor of medicine. “Some of our mentors are hematologists, thoracic cardiologists, pulmonologists, and even molecular biologists.”

During the first year, students identify a mentor, create and submit a proposal for their summer research. In the summer months between the first and second years, students participate in a nine-week research project and gain insight into research topics through seminars. They often present their work at the Summer Research Symposium and  continue research through the second, third and fourth years, culminating in a final scholarly work submission.

Harrington says students have had the unique opportunity to experience working in wet and basic labs early on in medical school while fostering long-term relationships with faculty researchers. It’s not just the students benefitting from the experience, though.

“It is an extra set of hands [for the researchers], but it also brings in another perspective. As a new person comes into a lab and brings their own life experiences, they also bring in their own ways in which they can look at a problem,” Harrington says. “These medical students don’t stop their research after the summer, and they continue to get exposure to both sides of the bench.”

For students like David Hong MD’28, the BTR program offered a chance to work in a field he finds exciting, while getting a feel for clinical research. His project focuses on mechanical thrombectomy to treat large-vessel occlusion strokes, examining different generations of aspiration catheters and their performance over time. He worked under the mentorship of Dylan Wolman, MD, assistant professor of neurosurgery and of radiology, in the BRAINIAC Research Lab.

Hong says he is finalizing his research in preparation for submitting a manuscript, but he has already won an Outstanding Interventional Project Award, at the American Society of Neuroradiology 2026 Annual Meeting in May. He found it "inspiring" to learn from classmates and faculty at Brown who have pursued research alongside clinical work.

“The in-person components made me really appreciate the research community presence at the Medical School,” he says.

Hong says the BTR program gave him a “leaping pad” for the rest of his medical school experience.

“It gave me the support and mentorship for a period of very focused work, which ultimately laid the foundation for a sustainable engagement with research that's continued into my clinical years,” he says.

Tolu Ogunfowora '24 MD'28 studied engineering as an undergraduate, when she first heard about the program. She is working in the lab of Alan Morrison, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, mainly performing RNA sequencing analysis and working on a research project examining IL6 knockout models and potential ways to improve outcomes for cardiovascular patients.

She says she was a little overwhelmed at the start of the program, and found learning how to parse through large volumes of data to be challenging. However, the insight and cooperation from Morrison and other students offered great support for her research.

“It certainly strengthened my interest in translational research,” Ogunfowora says. “I value doing things in a lab that are going to directly impact patients later on. It was great to be in a lab space for the first time since starting medical school.”

Harrington says most trainees go on to residency and fellowship programs, but some have pursued other opportunities, like becoming associate and assistant professors, or working within private practices.

“Physician scientists will tell you it’s hard to balance clinical responsibilities with the research they love, so I think it’s vital that we engage with these students and the idea of becoming a physician-scientist,” she says.