MSU medical student awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine student, Monica Pomaville has been selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as a participant in its Medical Research Fellows Program.

Pomaville will join medical, dental and veterinary students in conducting in-depth, mentored biomedical research. Starting this summer, each fellow will spend a year pursuing basic, translational or applied biomedical research at one of 32 academic or nonprofit research institutions across the United States.

Her fellowship institution is Harvard Medical School where she will be working in a lab focused on neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial tumor found in children.

“I am very excited to have this opportunity to study neuroblastoma in such a stimulating environment and to have the support of MSU, the Howard Hughes Medical Fellowship, my past mentors and Dr. George's lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute,” said Pomaville, a third-year student at the college’s Flint campus.

Pomaville’s study titled, “Delineating the mechanism underlying oncogenic transcription of ALKF1174L/MYCN neuroblastomas,” will look at a particularly lethal form of neuroblastoma that holds poor prognosis for affected children.