Steven Spearie Correspondent

Bradley Vost had no direct lab research experience, but he knew the "nitty-gritty" work of it would help in his medical schooling.

Vost, a 2012 Sacred Heart-Griffin High School graduate who just completed his first year at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, is helping track a human gene "knocked in" to lab mice that could have implications for how researchers look at Alzheimer's disease.

The eight-week initiative, through the medical school's Mentored Professional Enrichment Experience (MPEE), has been eye-opening, said Vost, and not just because of the study he's focused on.

"It takes a lot of humility to be one piece of the research puzzle," said Vost. "Not every researcher is going to get to do the next big breakthrough. A lot of this is day-to-day work. The time is so sensitive.

"And patience is a huge part of it."

Eleven SIU students are scattered throughout the state this summer, involved in topics related to preterm infants, stroke and Alzheimers disease, said MPEE coordinator Eric Niederhoffer, though most, like Vost, are concentrated in Springfield.

The MPEE was started in 2000, according to Niederhoffer, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology based in Carbondale, where medical students spend their first year before transitioning to Springfield.

The experience is also "very self-directed," he added, with students identifying projects, which can be part of an existing study, and teaming up with mentors. Students present their findings to a medical school team this fall.

Niederhoffer said the MPEE can be an important resume booster for students, especially when they are applying for residencies.

In research, students are addressing unanswered questions or questions no one has thought of before, said Niederhoffer.

"They're working on answers to very specific questions," he said. "In research, you have to do a lot of work for a small payoff for something useful."

For Collin Innis, also from Springfield, the MPEE was a chance to reconnect with Dr. Benjamin Stevens, an orthopedic surgeon based at Springfield Clinic, with whom Innis spent a year as a scribe after graduating from Bradley University and before enrolling in medical school.

Innis is generating a database that tracks the outcomes of patients who have undergone gastrocnemius or gastrocsoleus recessions, processes that lengthen the Achilles tendon and take pressure off heel and forefoot pain.

Innis, who played basketball at Springfield High School and with a local AAU team, said the MPEE reminded him of the enthusiasm he had about getting into orthopedics.

"This is a preview of the rest of our lives," said Innis. "No one said this is easy, but it will pay dividends down the road."

Students don't take the MPEE lightly, although it is a deviation from regular course work. The summer between the first and second years of medical school, said Niederhoffer, is the most time off would-be doctors will have until they retire.

It can also be a jump-start, he added, because some students have come back to research topics they were first exposed to in the MPEE later on in medical school.

Vost, who is working with Erin Hascup, an assistant professor in the neurology and pharmacology departments at the medical school, said he may return to the Alzheimer's study later on in some fashion.

Just a few weeks into the MPEE, Vost said it has made him realize how "coordinated and precise" research has to be and how "medical breakthroughs" are often the results of several labs working on particular parts of a study.

Vost said he didn't seek out the Alzheimer's research for any personal or family reasons, but noted that he was struck going past the Mill Creek Alzheimer's Special Care Center on Ginger Creek Drive on his daily drive.

"(Alzheimer's) is a disease that comes on slowly and creates a feeling of helplessness," said Vost. "It made me want to work with it and help eliminate that feeling of helplessness."

--Steven Spearie contact: spearie@hotmail.com or follow on Facebook or Twitter (@StevenSpearie).

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SIU med students get experience in summer program - The State Journal-Register