Students from the Indiana University Medical Student Program for Research and Scholarship (IMPRS) summer research program gathered in the atrium of the Van Nuys Medical Science building in Indianapolis on July 24 and 25 to present their summer research.
IMPRS facilitates student participation in various medical research and experiential opportunities. The IMPRS summer program, supported in part by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, provides medical students with a summer-long, mentored research experience.
IMPRS works with all basic science units, clinical departments and research programs to provide a wide variety of opportunities at all nine IU School of Medicine campuses. One such opportunity is the Summer Program for Academic Research in Cancer (SPARC) at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, which offers cancer-focused research experiences to both first-year medical students (from any medical school) and undergraduates.
The poster symposium featured all IMPRS summer research participants (over 250 students) across four sessions, welcoming medical students from several institutions as well as undergraduate students from other summer medical research programs.
Tytus Ragle, an IMPRS summer program participant and medical student at IU School of Medicine—Terre Haute, worked alongside Melissa M. Pangelinan, PhD, associate professor of kinesiology at IU School of Pubic Health—Bloomington, to study how participation in a three-week summer camp influenced the amount of physical activity and quality of sleep in children with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Ragle's project, “Active Days, Restful Nights: The Impact of a Summer Camp on Physical Activity and Sleep in Children of All Abilities,” reported a reduction in the amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and the quality of sleep as children age, with reductions being greater in children with IDD.
“Summer is a time when there’s not as much structured activity for kids, so their physical activity tends to decline,” Ragle said. “They’re up late and they’re waking up later, so their sleep quality is going down too.”
Ragle also found that participation in the camp increased physical activity and sleep quality for older children during and after the camp, with participants continuing to engage in more physical activity after the camp’s conclusion. This was the case for older children both with and without IDD.
Mojeed Fagbemi, a SPARC trainee and medical student at Rosalind Franklin University Medical School in North Chicago, Illinois, worked with faculty mentor Fletcher A. White, PhD, Vergil K. Stoelting Professor of Anesthesia, to research the pathology that leads to chronic pain in patients who suffer a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), a relatively common injury among the general population. Fagbemi’s project, “Therapeutic Potential of Lascosamide for mTBI-Associated Neuropathic Pain,” reported positive results.
Fagbemi studied molecular and cellular biology in college, and so was particularly excited to work with White. “Working with Dr. White was like a dream,” Fagbemi said. “Everything I learned in school was applied in his lab.”
