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Natalie P

- Research Program Mentor

MD candidate at Tufts University

Expertise

Global health, human physiology, biology, neuroscience, neurobiology, medicine, surgery

Bio

Hi! My name is Natalie, and I'm a fourth year medical student in Boston. I have a masters degree in clinical and translational science, which I completed as part of a two-year NIH-funded research fellowship that provided rigorous coursework in study design, research methodology, biostatistics, and scientific manuscript writing. Research has been a big part of my clinical training career. Prior to medical school, I worked full-time as a research associate performing multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease research at NYU Langone Medical Center. As a medical student, I have spearheaded, led, and published projects on a variety of topics, including neurobiology, postoperative pain, global surgery education, transplant medicine, breast cancer, and plastic surgery. I also have extensive mentorship experience and enjoying helping students discover their passions in science and medicine! In my free time, I have volunteered as an international advocacy lead for gender equity in surgery. Outside of the academic realm, I enjoy Ballroom-Latin dancing, hiking, rock climbing, and creative writing.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Synergistic Pain Management for Postoperative Pain

This project will include a brief overview of current postoperative pain management guidelines, the neurobiology of opioid pain relief, and the burden of opioid addiction faced by patients undergoing surgery. The bulk of the project consists of a thorough literature review of pain relief pathways in the brain and research exploring synergistic ways of relieving postoperative pain via neurobiology (such as complimentary receptor stimulation) that may decrease the narcotic requirement for adequate pain relief of postsurgical patients in the future. The literature review will then conclude in information synthesis and a scientific manuscript summarizing the current state of research on pain pathways. The findings are relevant to important topics in addressing the opioid epidemic.

Ethical Considerations of Artificial Intelligence in General Surgery

This project involves a scientific viewpoint manuscript that examines the advantages, disadvantages, ethical considerations, and future directions for the use of artificial intelligence in surgery, with a particular focus on specific fields such as surgical oncology.

Racial Disparities and Preferences in Breast Reconstruction

This project reviews differences and disparities in access to care, type of breast reconstruction, and health outcomes among women who have survived breast cancer. Comparisons will be made based on the patients' racial and ethnic identities. This project offers an excellent opportunity to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on health disparities in order to address an important public health question.

Immune Cells During Pregnancy

This project will review the changes in immune cell populations and cell signaling that occur during pregnancy. Pregnancy requires a delicate balance between turning down parts of the maternal immune system to allow fetal development while also ramping up other parts to protect mother and baby from infection and disease during pregnancy. This project will explore the immunologic pathways and how imbalances have been linked to negative health outcomes.

Coding skills

R Studio

Languages I know

Polish (fluent), Spanish (high intermediate)

Teaching experience

My journey in teaching started in college, where I worked as a private tutor for three years. I tutored high school students preparing for school exams and SATs, and I focused on a wide range of subjects ranging from chemistry and biology to English language and literature. In medical school, I worked as a physiology tutor for first-year medical students scoring below threshold for the class. As a final year-medical student, I am also involved in teaching and tutoring first-year students in the advanced clinical anatomy course. I have worked as a peer mentor in various roles ranging from my job as a full-time research associate to being team leader for non-profit global surgery organizations.

Credentials

Work experience

Tufts Medical Center Department of Plastic Surgery (2021 - Current)
Student Research Fellow
American College of Surgeons - Operation Giving Back (2019 - Current)
Academic Global Surgery Research Taskforce Lead
National Institute of Health TL1 Research Fellowship (2020 - 2022)
Research Fellow
New York University Langone Medical Center - Department of Neurology (2016 - 2017)
Full-time Research Associate

Education

New York University
BS Bachelor of Science (2016)
Neuroscience
Tufts University
MS Master of Science
Clinical and Translational Science
Tufts University
MD Doctor of Medicine candidate
Medicine

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