Student Spotlight: Bryan Redmond

Bryan Redmond is a second year in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, and fourth year in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Redmond graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana with a B.S. in psychology.

Redmond’s research interest lies in the visual deficits experienced following optical lobe stroke. He is currently working in the lab of Krystel Huxlin, Ph.D., investigating whether neurons in undamaged areas of the visual circuit can be stimulated to restore vision following stroke. “There are no gold standard therapies for helping these patients recover their vision,” Redmond said. “If you have a motor stroke, you go to rehab, and keep training a muscle until you regain function. Patients with visual stroke are taught compensatory eye movements to make up for the blind field segment, or they are prescribed glasses with special lenses. These options teach patients to cope with their deficiency. We hope to develop a way to help them recover.”

Redmond is also motivated to use his academic experience to help create a pipeline for future scientists of color. He is one of the original members of the Neuroscience Diversity Commission. “I am compelled to alleviate some of the systemic issues persons of color face in science and to improve the experience of those who come after me,” said Redmond. “I have this fire, this internal motivation, to really be a changemaker. And being around others who also have this passion, like my counterparts on the Diversity Commission, keeps me motivated. It keeps my foot on the gas pedal when it comes to doing the work.”

In November 2021, Redmond was selected as a Diverse Medical Scholars Program Fellow by the United Health Foundation/National Medical Fellowships organization. The honor includes a $7,000 grant that will support a medical education program Redmond has developed in partnership with University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men (UPREP), a charter school in Rochester, N.Y. Redmond is using the students’ affinity for sports as a scaffold for interest in careers in health care and options in higher education. His mentors for this program are Malik Sams, M.D., and Lynette Froula, M.D., with Emergency Medicine, and Walter Larkin, Jr., CEO of UPREP.

“A program like this gives students an opportunity to consider how their love for sports can transfer into a meaningful career. Alongside other health care professionals, we discuss topics like careers in medicine, nutrition, and preventable diseases. I think a lot of the reformation of issues observed in the community can be tackled early within the classroom. If you can educate people and teach them how to be better persons, I think they go out and become better citizens, and lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives.”