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Fifth Annual Karen Zier Medical Student Research Day March 17, 2022

Welcome to the 27th Annual Medical Student Research Day, named in honor of Karen Zier, PhD, founding Associate Dean for the Medical Student Research Office. Last year we held it virtually and it was an enormous success. With two years of social distancing, we are planning to hold it in-person if it is safe to do so. It will be great to see your faces in 3-D, even if it is masked.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai places immense importance on rigorous, mentored scholarship in the education of future physicians. The Medical Student Research Office supports this mission through the Scholarship and Research (SCHOLaR) program, which provides students research curricular training, helps to identify a research mentor, and supports the development of a rigorous research project in their area of interest. Student scholarship is supported by several programs, including the Summer Research Investigators Program, the Scholarly Year Program, and PORTAL (Patient-Oriented Research, Training, and Leadership) which offers a combined MD-Masters of Science in Clinical Research. Additional support is available to students participating in research through the Global Health Summer Program, and Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs (CMCA), the Diversity Innovation Hub (DIH), and more. The projects presented reflect the intellectual curiosity and critical thinking of our students and are a result of their hard work and the dedication of their faculty mentors.

The medical student research program flourishes because of the enthusiasm of our students, the support of school leadership, and the commitment of dedicated faculty mentors. We are grateful for the support of Dr. Dennis Charney, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Dr. David Muller, Dean for Medical Education. We would like to send a special thank you to the SCHOLaR Track Advisors for their dedicated support making this day possible:

—Jacob Appel, MD, MS, MPH —Supinda Bunyavanich, MD —Kevin Costa, PhD —Darinka Gadikota-Klumpers, PhD —Leona Hess, PhD —James Iatridis, PhD —Reena Karani, MD, MHPE —Tatyana Kushner, MD, MSCE —Ann-Gel Palermo, DrPH —Paz Polak, PhD —Perry Sheffield, MD —Rainer Soriano, MD

Thank you Grace Oluoch and Yakhira Encarnacion-Patterson, Program Administrators for the Medical Student Research Office, for producing the abstract book and the Research Day planning and organization.

Jenny J. Lin, MD, MPH Co-Director of SCHOLaR Keith Sigel, MD, PhD Director of PORTAL Mary Rojas, PhD Director of the MSRO