WesternU COMP and COMP-Northwest students and faculty present research, help organize Carmel meeting

The Western Medical Research Conference (aka Carmel meeting) organized by the Western Section of the American Federation of Medical Research, the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, the Western Association of Physician and the Western Society for Pediatric Research, continues to grow each year, as does the involvement and participation of Western University of Health Sciences faculty and students.

WesternU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) and COMP-Northwest sent 67 students to the conference, held Jan. 16-18, 2025 in Carmel, California. COMP Associate Professor Sébastien Fuchs, MD, PhD, elected Chair for the Western Section of the American Federation of Medical Research last year, served as organizing chair of the conference. COMP Professor Hendrik Szurmant, PhD, served as an American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR) council member. As the elected chair for the Western Section American Federation for Medical Research, Dr. Fuchs selected abstracts, invited moderators and speakers, and organized awards.

Fifty-one COMP students and 16 COMP-Northwest students gave oral or poster presentations. Also in attendance and/or moderating sessions were COMP Professor Xiaoning Bi, MD, PhD, COMP Associate Dean and Associate Professor Stephanie White, DO, COMP-Northwest Professor Brion Benninger, MD, MSc, and College of Dental Medicine Professor Michel Baudry, PhD.

“Our students represented nearly 10% of the abstracts there,” Fuchs said. “We had one of the largest cohorts from one school.”

The conference attracted students and faculty from medical schools across the western United States, as well from New York, Florida and Canada, and elsewhere. Each year, the number of WesternU students who attend the Carmel meeting continues to grow. Drs. Szurmant and Fuchs credit communication with the class about the opportunities to conduct research.

“We are advising students on research projects. Word of mouth among students is that those students who attend have a great time. They tell the next class,” Szurmant said.

Dr. Fuchs and Dr. Szurmant helped their students prepare well by offering support to prepare and submit their abstracts to be as competitive as possible and give them the best possible chance to be selected. They also provided numerous on-campus opportunities to practice their presentations.

The Carmel meeting gives students a lot of visibility, with a lot of residency program directors and other prominent figures in medical education in attendance, Szurmant said.

Attending the conference gives students valuable experience.

“It’s allowing our students to be more competitive for applications to residencies, and it also enriches their education,” Fuchs said. “It allows them to become better learners and users of science later in their career. It fulfills one part of our college mission, to be lifelong learners.”

Second-year COMP student Emily Lyon presented a research poster, “Impact of Methamphetamine Route of Administration on Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction,” that builds on work presented by COMP students at the Carmel meeting in 2024. Lyon and her classmates also presented this research at the WesternU Research Symposium and the COMP Student Research Symposium in late 2024.

“It was great to get feedback from other WesternU folks and from people outside our community about what parts of our study can we improve on going into next summer,” Lyon said. “It was really inspiring to see other students presenting their data. It made me feel like I was part of a bigger community. It was really cool to be able to share our experiences and learn from each other. Another great thing about conference is being able to meet colleagues from our Northwest campus and being able to learn from and meet so many industry folks from all over.”

Lyon appreciated the opportunity to spend time away from campus.

“It’s really an amazing opportunity to be able to get out of the bubble of our community, which is an amazing bubble, but we should be able to step out of that comfort zone,” she said. “It opens my eyes to the extracurriculars people are doing, the other activities people are getting involved in to learn outside the classroom. It’s a cool way to bring people together.”

Second-year COMP student Shaira Gail Ramirez Santos, MSMS ’23, is part of COMP’s Biomedical and Clinical Research Track. Her advisers, Drs. Fuchs and Szurmant, spoke highly of the conference as a way to network and present research. Santos said she was nervous about giving her first oral presentation at the conference, but her mentors helped her practice and reviewed her slides in preparation.

“I definitely really enjoyed it, and I recommend it to any students in COMP who are remotely interested in research,” Santos said. “It’s a great opportunity to practice the soft skills of public speaking and being able to communicate in a way that is digestible for folks. It’s a great way to network with other students who have similar interests. Students came up to me and wanted to talk more about research. We were able to connect and I was able to learn more about what they were doing at their schools.”

Santos graduated from the WesternU College of Health Sciences’ Master of Science in Medical Sciences program, which introduced her to research. She was initially intimidated about looking for a research mentor, but Fuchs and Szurmant told her about the many options at WesternU to pursue research. In her first year in COMP, she worked with College of Pharmacy Professor Ying Huang, PhD, MD. In her second year, with a letter of recommendation from Szurmant in hand, Santos was accepted into a summer research program at UC San Francisco. She is interested in continuing to pursue research in the future.

“Research is the foundation of medicine, and I think that’s how we can continue to keep growing the field,” Santos said.

COMP student Zollie Daily received the WAFMR Trainee Research Award. COMP-Northwest student Alissa Reed received the WSPR Abbott Nutrition Lowell Glasgow Student Research Award, presented by the Western Society for Pediatric Research to the top scoring abstract submitted by a student (medical, graduate, and/or undergraduate). Reed co-authored the article “Association Between In Utero Tetrahydrocannabinol Exposure and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder” with COMP-Northwest classmate Sage Richardson and COMP-Northwest Assistant Professor Adam Paul, MD, FAAP. She gave an oral presentation at the Carmel meeting on behalf of their team.

“It was a great experience. It was lovely,” Reed said. “I know research will always be part of my career. Being a physician is not just treating patients on a day-to-day basis. Research emphasizes the importance to further the medical field.”

Reed said she was excited to learn what residents, fellows and students were doing at different hospitals and universities. Dr. Fuchs encouraged them to engage with others after their presentations to see what questions they had.

“Finding connections and sharing research is an important part of being part of the scientific community. Everyone was so kind and welcoming, so inviting and supportive,” Reed said. “It was such a cool opportunity overall. It was fun to go with all the COMP and COMP-Northwest students. Research is such a team sport. It’s awesome to be together, and to support them at their presentations and talks.”