The GSO NewsVolume 2, Issue 1, September 2010

www.mcg.edu/gradstudies/students.htmMedical College of Georgia Graduate Student Organization

The GSO News 1

Inside this Issue

Welcome Back from the GSOPresident

2010/11 GSO Officers

26th Annual Graduate Research Day

Student: Aisha Cobbs

Student: Irfan Ali

Faculty: Dr. Jennifer Sullivan

Student Accomplishments

Feature Article: Medical Illustration

GSO Fundraiser

2010/11 GSO OfficersColleen Carey

In addition to the GSO presidents wel-

come note, the GSO officers would also

like to take the opportunity to briefly in-

troduce themselves. Here we provide you

with some basic information about the

work we do at MCG and highlight the

goals each one of us is eager to achieve

within this academic year.

Welcome Back from the GSO President

Dear fellow graduate students,

Its once again that time of the year - a

new academic term has just begun and

we have a lot planned for you. Last year

we were able to establish many new things

for MCGs graduate students while at the

same time also maintaining well-appreci-

ated GSO traditions and even reviving

old ideas. In doing so, we were able to

meet our goals of improving the overall

communication among the graduate stu-

dent body, connecting students from dif-

ferent programs, combining GSOs and

SGAs efforts for the benefit of all MCG

students, and establishing new relation-

ships with other schools within the Uni-

versity System of Georgia. As a result of

these team efforts, we are able to look

back on a very active and successful past

year for our organization!

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While we begin the new academic year

with presenting the 1st edition of the

GSO Welcome Handbook to the new

incoming classes of graduate students

(which can be found at http://www.mcg.

edu/gradstudies/students.htm), we also

plan to extend our focus on the more up-

per level students by a variety of means.

One such goal of doing so is through in-

viting guest speakers to talk about profes-

sional career opportunities, because one

can never start planning the future too

early! Lastly, Id like to encourage you

to keep an eye out for announcements

from your organization. Thanks to your

help, input, and participation, GSO has

become one of the most influential and

well-respected student organizations at

MCG and together we can keep it that

way! On behalf of the GSO and my fel-

low officers I wish you all a very success-

ful year and look forward to seeing you

at many of the upcoming events we have

planned.

Samuel Herberg

GSO President

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The GSO News 2

...from Officers, pg. 1

President Samuel Herberg:

3rd year Cellular Biology & Anatomy

PhD student in Dr. William Hills lab,

research interest in stem cells for tissue

regeneration. Goal(s) for this year: To

further improve the overall recognition

of GSO campus-wide by representing

our organization at the highest level of

student leaders while also making sure

that our services reach the more than

500 graduate students by acting as their

point person. Ultimately, I wish for GSO

to become an invaluable part of every

graduate students intellectual and social

experience at our institution.

Vice president Katie Spitler:

2nd year Biomed PhD student in Dr.

Clinton Webbs lab, research interest

using dietary supplementation to im-

prove hypertension. My goals are to

help organize a new lecture series featur-

ing speakers that will talk about job op-

portunities that are out there after some-

one gets a PhD.

Secretary Paramita Pati:

3rd year BIOMED PhD student in Dr.

Dan Rudics lab, research interest is in

the role of the circadian clock in hyper-

tension and regulation of the circadian

clock in the vasculature. Goal for this

year: To provide official correspon-

dence and distribute information related

to GSO. Also, to work with the

Colleen Carey

As one of the longest-standing tradi-

tions and highlights of the academic year

within the School of Graduate Studies,

Graduate Research Day provides an op-

portunity for both students and postdocs

to share with the campus the outstand-

ing work that is being conducted here on

campus. As expected, the 26th annual

Graduate Research Day held in March

2010 proved to be an impressive display

of progressive and innovative projects

from all participants. This year over 100

postdoctoral fellows and graduate stu-

dents showcased research in biomedical

sciences, biostatistics, health informatics,

medical illustration and nursing.

This year, Sir Salvador Moncada (MD,

PhD, DSci, FMedSci, FRS) a world re-

nowned scientist and Professor of Ex-

perimental Biology and Therapeutics

at University College London, United

Kingdom was the invited guest speaker.

Dr. Moncada earned his Doctor of Phi-

losophy in Pharmacology at the Royal

College of Surgeons at the University of

26th Annual Graduate Research Day: Students, trainees and post-doctoral fellows shine London and Wellcome Research Labora-

tories under Sir John Vane. While there

he solved the mechanism of action of as-

pirin, which was published in three clas-

sic papers for which he received a PhD in

1973. Dr. Moncada then went on to play

a central role in the discovery and devel-

opment of prostacyclin as a medicine for

cardiopulmonary bypass operations and

pulmonary hypertension.

In 1985 Dr. Moncada began investiga-

tions that lead him and his team to

identify the newly described, endothe-

lium-derived releasing factor or EDRF

and his lab made one of the first break-

throughs that later enabled EDRF to be

identified as nitric oxide. To date, his

work still continues to elucidate new

mechanisms in endothelial cell biology

and explore new therapies in cardiovas-

cular medicine. Dr. Moncada is an excel-

lent speaker and his talk was enjoyed by

all who attended.

The staff of GSO News would like to congratu-late all participants for their hard work as well as to specifically acknowledge the winners of

this years awards. (Next page)

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The GSO News 3

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The GSO News 4

Aisha CobbsParamita Pati