Aspiring physician-scientists from around the country converged on Nashville Sept. 21-22 for the 2024 Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS) annual conference at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
As a regional meeting of the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA), the SEMSS brings physician-scientists, resident physicians, MD, MD/PhD and undergraduate students together to promote mentorship, provide information on the career path, and showcase student research through oral and poster presentations.
This year’s conference, co-hosted by the Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTPs) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Emory University and Vanderbilt University, was the largest in the 15-year history of the SEMSS, with more than 300 registered attendees.
“This symposium plays a vital role in fostering the next generation of physician-scientists by highlighting groundbreaking research and promoting mentorship,” said Vanderbilt MSTP director Chris Williams, MD, PhD.
“It’s an important opportunity to collaborate and create an environment of mentorship essential for our collective success in advancing science and medicine,” said Williams, professor of Medicine and associate dean for Physician-Scientist Education and Training at Vanderbilt University.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Bench to Bedside: Leading in Science in Medicine.”
Keynote speakers were James E.K. Hildreth, PhD, MD, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College who is internationally known for his HIV research, and Duane Mitchell, MD, PhD, the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor of Neurosurgery and co-director of the Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy at the University of Florida.
Fourteen Vanderbilt faculty and staff co-led breakout sessions on topics such as “Finding Good Mentors” and “Career Paths After Training,” and several VUMC students shared their experiences during panel discussions on MSTP admission.
Twenty-four VU/VUMC undergraduate and graduate students gave oral presentations of their research during the conference, which also included 150 poster presentations. Vanderbilt MSTP students Avery Bogart and Reilly Fankhauser received first-place awards in the graduate student categories of the oral and poster presentations, respectively.
The conference was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant R13GM109532, UAB, Emory, Vanderbilt, the APSA and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
