USA basic medical sciences student selected for international policy fellowship network

Marcy Cage, M.S., M.P.H.

Translating the written work of scientific research into something everyone else can understand often is an art form that takes years to perfect. A student in the basic medical sciences program at the Whiddon College of Medicine at USA is among a group of students taking part in an initiative with the aim of building better science policy advocates who can write and understand the often complicated and nuanced language used by the scientific community.       

Marcy Cage, M.S, M.P.H., a Ph.D. candidate in the basic medical sciences program, has been selected to take part in the Japan-U.S. Science Communication and Policy Fellowship Network (SciComm Policy Network). 

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) program recruits, cultivates leadership, and inspires excellence among fellows from underrepresented backgrounds in the United States and Japan, Cage said, to become the next generation of successful science policy advocates. The intentional recruitment efforts create cohorts with diverse personal positions relating to science policy issues, with a goal of those fellows bringing a range of experiences to inform scientific research and policy. 

“As a scientist in training, it is very important to me that I am skilled to communicate my research on any platform and that I am effective enough to influence policy at all levels,” Cage said. “I believe that the OIST program is providing me with an opportunity to achieve this goal.”

As part of the program, Cage has been taking part in two sessions per month for a six-month period and plans to attend a symposium in Japan or Washington, D.C., in January 2023. During the first four sessions, participants are trained in the art of storytelling by using four principles: find the fun, activate the audience, tell the truth, and embrace the flop. 

During each 2.5-hour session, students are separated into groups of four where they share stories and provide feedback based on those principles. “Although we are sharing stories about anything at the onset,” Cage said, “the moderators center us on a research focus at the end of the session.”  

A third-year student in the department of physiology and cell biology, Cage is mentored by Thomas Rich, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of pharmacology, and Troy Stevens, Ph.D., a professor and Lenoir Louise Locke Chair of Physiology and Cell Biology. Her current research focuses on the effects of air pollutants ozone and PM2.5 in high-school-aged children living in Mobile.

Meet a Ph.D. Student: Meredith Selby Gwin

Meredith Selby Gwin

Age: 28 

Hometown: Daphne, Alabama 

Undergraduate institutions and degrees earned: Coastal Alabama Community College, A.A. in liberal arts and A.S. in general studies; University of Mobile, B.S. in biology with a pre-professional focus and a minor in chemistry, summa cum laude

BMS program track and year of study: Physiology and Cell Biology and Center for Lung Biology; year, almost done. 

What research are you involved in? My work has focused on developing and analyzing a novel gamma secretase activating protein (GSAP) knockout rat and determining what role the GSAP protein plays in the response to bacterial pneumonia in three major organ systems including the brain, heart and lungs.

What do you enjoy most about being a doctoral student at the Whiddon College of Medicine? I enjoy the same thing that everyone else seems to enjoy: the sense of community and working in an incredibly supportive and collaborative environment.

What are your interests and hobbies outside of school and work? I enjoy going to concerts and sporting events; playing tennis; running; being really involved in my nieces' and nephews’ lives; traveling; political activism; hanging out with my No. 1 dude, my dog Pundit; and, most importantly, smashing the patriarchy. 

USA awarded $5.45 million to enhance Primary Care Pathway program

Allen Perkins, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chair of family medicine, talks with second-year medical students and Primary Care Pathway Scholars Mary Carlton, left, and Cara Nix, right.

With the goal to increase the number of primary care physicians in rural and medically underserved communities and ultimately improve the health of those populations, the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama received $5.45 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to expand and enhance its Primary Care Pathway (PCP) program.

This award supplements a grant the Whiddon College of Medicine received from HRSA in September 2019. The initial grant, plus all supplemental funding, now totals $19.8 million.

Launched in July 2020, the PCP program is an educational track that provides medical students with four years of specialized training in primary care. The Primary Care Pathway Scholars are selected based on an interest in primary care and a willingness to commit to the practice following residency training. The program enrolls up to 10 students per class, for a total of 40 PCP Scholars.

“We provide tuition assistance, clinical, research and educational experiences in federally qualified health centers with the ultimate goal to have them enter into a primary care discipline and practice in an underserved environment,” said Allen Perkins, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chair of family medicine and principal investigator of the project. 

Perkins said the supplemental funding will enhance the educational environment of the community health centers in which the students learn and work. The five community sites are Franklin Medical Mall in Mobile, Franklin Foley Family Health Center, Franklin Loxley Family Health Center, Semmes Family Health Center, and Accordia Health in Bayou La Batre.

“We are providing support for faculty at the College of Medicine as well as community-based faculty to provide these experiences,” Perkins said. In addition to clinical care, faculty instruct students on topics such as leadership, population health sciences, social determinants of health, and opioid and substance abuse screening.

The supplemental funds also will be used to provide space in the simulation lab for simulated patient encounters focusing on underserved and disadvantaged populations, which all medical students will be exposed to in the curriculum, Perkins said.

The Whiddon College of Medicine has a long track record of graduating physicians who practice in the state. In the previous five years, 25.8% of graduates practice primary care, 36.7% practice in Alabama, 7.3% practice in rural areas, and 31.7% practice in underserved areas.

Learn more about the Primary Care Pathway program at the Whiddon College of Medicine. 

Meet a Med Student: Naden Kreitz

Naden Kreitz

Age: 24

Class of: 2025

Hometown: Montgomery, Alabama

Undergrad institution: University of South Alabama

Degree earned: Bachelor of Science in biology

Interests, hobbies: I enjoy hiking, traveling, teaching, and playing tennis and pickleball.

Something unique about me: I attended a boarding school in Princeton, New Jersey, when I was in the sixth and seventh grade.

Three of my favorite things: Visiting national parks, activities on a lake and attending a symphony

What I enjoy most about being a student at the Whiddon College of Medicine: My favorite part of South is the community. I have been able to create friendships that go beyond school and have impacted my time in medical school. I am thankful for classmates and faculty who have challenged and encouraged me during this journey.

USA scientist receives $2.3 million grant renewal for flea pathogen research

Kevin Macaluso, Ph.D., professor and chair of microbiology and immunology, is studying the transmission of diseases by fleas.

A $2.3 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health will help scientist Kevin Macaluso, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine ultimately improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases transmitted by fleas and other insects.

There are no vaccines available to prevent rickettsial infections, and antibiotics are not recommended for prevention of such diseases.

Rickettsial infections, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, are bacterial diseases that can produce mild to severe, flu-like symptoms and are transmitted through the bites of arthropods such as fleas and ticks. If untreated, the toll of the disease on humans can be severe. In the United States, about 5,500 rickettsial infection cases are reported each year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is likely much larger because the majority of cases typically go unreported.

Macaluso, Locke Distinguished Chair and a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at the Whiddon College of Medicine, said the grant is essential for his lab’s continued work.

“Our ultimate goal for this research is to make clear the biological and molecular mechanisms that are critical to rickettsial transmission by fleas so we can better understand the epidemiology of flea-borne rickettsial diseases and identify novel points of intervention,” Macaluso said.

Recent discoveries, including the transmission of flea-borne pathogens in the absence of a rickettsemic host and the identification of multiple rickettsial agents co-circulating in flea populations, have guided the research to determine if overlapping rickettsial agents circulating in flea populations influence the transmission of one another.

The assembly of the cat flea genome, which Macaluso and other collaborators first published details about in June 2020, also allows for investigation of the flea-derived factors that facilitate or prevent Rickettsia transmission.

Rickettsia felis originally was identified in the United States as a human pathogen in 1991 and now is associated with human infection in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.