August Blog: New New Orleans

Hey everyone! This will be a quick blog post before the end of the semester. Right now our class is preparing for the brain and behavior block exam. I have enjoyed all of the material for this exam. Studying complex diseases like Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, addiction, and many more has really expanded the way I view psychiatric disorders. At this point in the medical community, the treatment paradigms are based on relieving symptoms, rather than targeting the disease itself. I believe this is one of the most important frontiers of medicine. I hope to one day be involved in truly understanding and treating these diseases, and this program has given me an amazing start! This month, I participated in a Habitat for Humanity build with a few other students in the program. It was a cold day, but we were able to get a lot done building the sides of the house, as well as, having fun during the whole process. It is exciting to see a group of students so engaged in comm...

Hey everyone, it's me again! Another month down and only one block remaining until winter break. November was a filled month for the pharmacology program. For most of the month we studied the endocrine/reproductive system. I was a neuroscience and psychology double major in college, so this material was mostly new for me. What I found most interesting about this block was all the incredibly complex facets involved with diabetes. It is absolutely amazing how this common disease initiates and progresses throughout a patients life. Learning about everything from the specific biology, all the way to pharmacological intervention, helped me understand how an entire human system responds in many different ways to disruption in the normal metabolic routine. In order to help us gain an understanding of diabetes and its treatments, we all participated in a Team Based Learning exercise. We are split into small groups and work together on answering difficult questions about the disease. I be...

Hey everyone! October has been an amazing and busy time. The weather goes back and forth between typical New Orleans heat and atypical New Orleans chills. This month we finished our pulmonary block, learning about antivirals, antifungals, pneumonia, organ transplants, and various molecular imaging techniques. From there, we started our GI/neoplasia block covering drugs ranging from IBS all the way to chemotherapy. It has been a busy time with a lot of information to be learned, but manageable now that everyone is now in the pharmacology rhythm. That being said, I am more than ready for our upcoming thanksgiving break! This month, a few students in the program, and myself, volunteered for a 5k run hosted by the United Negro College Fund. I signed up for this event last minute after hearing about it from a few classmates. I was quickly on board once I heard about the amazing work that this fund does for historically black colleges and universities such as Xavier and Dillard Universit...

Hey Everyone! September has been both a busy and exciting time for the medical pharmacology program. We finished our cardiovascular and renal blocks, which were tough, yet rewarding. As we have gotten deeper into our program, we have all grown more comfortable with each other and our professors. We have been given the confidence and reassurance to start some great work in the New Orleans community. This month I have put in a lot of effort to kick off the year for the Youth Movement Against Alzheimer's organization. I originally helped bring this organization to Tulane's uptown campus as an undergraduate. As a graduate student, I am staying involved as an advisor role, in order to help the organization really become an influential group. This past week I have begun the development of Tulane's YMAA website, and the incorporation of our mission into Tulane's Brain Institute. Furthermore, I have helped initiate our long term goal of creating an undergraduate research aw...

Hey everyone! This is my first blog post for the masters of medical pharmacology program at Tulane, so I will give some background information about myself to start everything off. I am originally from New York City and I got my undergrad degree at Tulane University in Psychology and Neuroscience. I originally came down south for my college experience because I wanted a change of scenery and pace from city life, and it has been the best decision of my life. That is why I am ecstatic to stay in Louisiana for an extra year studying pharmacology. So far the program has been the perfect combination of challenging work with rewarding knowledge gains. I love the opportunity I have been given to learn with like minded students in an environment where the front line of research is being performed.  What I appreciate the most about Tulane is its focus on community service. Tulane and New Orleans are incredibly intertwined, especially after the devastating events caused by Katrina, a...