How did you decide to pursue an MD/PhD after your undergraduate degree at Brown? What was it like moving into medicine after pursuing engineering?

As part of the PLME program, I found out as a high school senior that I had been accepted to medical school. This obviously took off a lot of academic pressure during my undergraduate years and gave me the opportunity to explore many of my interests without feeling limited by completing a standard pre-medical curriculum. I was able to explore courses in Egyptology, Africana Studies, Art History and Visual Art in addition to all the courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering that I found interesting. Ultimately, I completed the AB/ScB program in Visual Arts as well as Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Although I enjoyed Biochemistry, I found the concepts and research that I as exposed to felt very cerebral with limited direct applicability to clinical medicine, which is where I knew I was headed. Fortunately, I enrolled in Polymer Science for Biomaterals with Dr. Mathiowitz and learned all about the use of polymers in various biomedical applications, including drug delivery. This helped me to focus my electives on the Biotechnology courses. I ultimately took all of Dr. Mathiowitz’s classes and joined her lab to work on developing more effective polymeric oral drug delivery systems. I could directly see the potential impact that the work were doing in the lab could have on the treatment of countless medical problems. As I reached my senior year, I felt that I needed more time to explore this research and really push myself to become an expert in the field so that I could have the option to incorporate research into my future career.

I think my time in engineering courses and graduate school really helped me to become more mature in how I approach scientific problems. A lot of clinical medicine is similar to research. You take information that is available about a patient and their disease process as well as your knowledge and experience to propose a diagnostic or treatment plan then use the results of each of your tests and interventions to further optimize your management. The time that I had in graduate school helped develop my critical thinking skills and also fostered a sense of resilience that helped me get through medical school. As graduate students, we often have more failures than successes and need to stay focused and motived to keep going. Medicine is similar in that you’ll find yourself in difficult situations where the stakes are very high and you need to stay focused to help your patient have the best outcome possible. The graduate program also offered an Experimental Animal Surgery course that I took. This course was incredible and gave me exposure to surgical techniques and the periooperative care of animals, which fostered my interest in surgery. This combined with my interest in biomaterials and engineering helped me to find Plastic Surgery as the perfect specialty for me.

Would you mind telling me more about your work consulting as a Senior Scientist at a startup?

I had the opportunity to work as a consultant for many startups during my time in the lab. This helped me to become more familiar with the research process outside of academia. One of the startups that I worked for, NuLabel Technologies, was founded by undergraduates at Brown in one of the Engineering courses. They had developed a concept for liner-free labels that would not only be environmentally friendly but more cost effective and versatile. They needed a polymer scientist to help with the development of their formulations. It was an exciting opportunity for me to get involved since it allowed me to use the knowledge and skills I had developed during graduate school in a completely different application. The startup environment is super dynamic and exciting but also stressful, I found it to be much more engaging than research in an academic lab since our projects, goals, and deadlines were constantly in flux based on our investors and clients; the pace was completely different than anything I had seen at Brown. I had an amazing time working as a consultant with this extremely talented group of people so when I finished my Masters and my PhD, I decided to take a leave of absence from the MD/PhD program when I was offered a position as a Senior Scientist. This was the year that I grew the most as a scientist. It’s a very different experience from graduate school where you have mentors and resources available for advice. In my new role, I was the one everyone turned to and it forced me to trust my intuition and commit to my decisions. We ultimately developed multiple formulations and products, had many successful trials, and filed numerous patents from my work. It as a tough decision to leave the company as I loved every minute of it but I knew my ultimate goal was to return clinical medicine so when the company was in a good place, I returned to medical school even better prepared than I was after graduate school. Since then, the company has been thriving and I am excited about the progress they have made.

What are you working on now (in terms of research and/or clinical work)? How do you think your BME education has informed your current work?

Plastic Surgery residencies are very competitive and last either 6 or 7 years, based on whether or not the program requires a year of research. Having completed a Masters degree, PhD, and a year running a lab at a startup, I was interested in programs that did not have required research time since I wanted to spend my time in residency developing my clinical skills. I was extremely fortunate to match at the University of Washington, which offers the best clinical training in the country and gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best surgeons I have ever met. I spent a month rotating here as a medical student and absolutely loved the program. The great thing about this program is that residents are engaged in research because they are genuinely interested. Our faculty are always there to support resident research projects but we are given the independence to develop and execute our own projects. I’ve been engaged in multiple clinical projects including work in craniofacial surgery, lower extremity reconstruction, pediatric plastic surgery, and burn surgery. A project that I have been particularly excited about looks at the representation of racial diversity in plastic surgery and medical research. Residency has been a great opportunity for me to continue doing research but outside of the lab. I’ve developed a whole other set of clinical research skills that I can add to my toolbox as I advance in my career as a physician scientist.

My BME education played a really big role in attracting me to Plastic Surgery. Plastic Surgery is an extremely broad field that covers microsurgery, craniofacial surgery, pediatric plastic surgery, hand surgery, peripheral nerve surgery, and aesthetic surgery. It’s definitely a much more complex field than is portrayed in the media. As I explored specialties as a medical student, I was attracted to the surgical specialties since these were the fields were BME and biomaterials research significantly enhances patient care and outcomes. Plastic Surgery in particular uses all sorts of biomaterials and technology, almost on a daily basis. This week alone I’ve used acellular dermal matrix, polymeric resorbable plates and screws, titanium hardware, fibrin glue, and countless other products and technologies that were developed by engineers. The attendings in my program also work with the manufacturers to optimize their products to better suit our surgical needs. I love chatting with the product representatives about the science behind their products, hearing about new products in development, and seeing them identify ways to improve their products based on what they see in the OR. I also review biomedical engineering and materials science papers for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, which has been an amazing way for me to stay connected with research relevant to my specialty.

What was your favorite thing about your time at Brown? What would you have done differently?
I loved the flexibility that I had at Brown. The open curriculum and PLME allowed me to gain a well-rounded education but also gave me the opportunity to explore my personal interests to tailor my education and career. There is something about Brown that tends to create chance encounters between the right people at the right time and I have directly benefited from that many times. I can’t imagine how I would have gotten to where I am today without all the opportunities I had at Brown. I have a lot of love for Brown and I wear my UW hospital IDs on a Brown lanyard every day to remind me of the amazing time I had there. I can’t really think of anything I would have done differently - I did consider engineering as an undergraduate concentration but I wasn’t hardcore enough for that but Brown, once again, gave me another opportunity to do BME research through the
Biotechnology graduate program.

What advice would you give to current undergraduates looking to pursue medicine after BME?

Do it! There is a need for engineers, especially those with a strong background in research, to become physicians and surgeons. A lot of research in the lab by PhDs is so far removed from what happens in the hospital and ORs that their projects don’t address clinical issues and their results can’t effectively be transitioned to clinical use. Clinicians have first hand knowledge of what tools and tests are needed in patient care but often there is a lack of research training and time to develop effective research programs. The best way to bridge this gap is to have people who can perform high quality research and also understand how medicine is practiced. There are countless exciting, interesting, and practical research projects that are waiting for smart engineers and the best way to find them is to identify them first hand. Even if you don’t want to be a physician scientist, as an engineer you will be trained to learn a large amount of material quickly and approach problems in a very thoughtful and sophisticated manner, which will make you a better medical student and doctor. There are many non-traditional paths to medicine so it’s never too late if you realize that you are interested in pursuing a career in medicine.