Attending the Congress of Future Medical Leaders allowed me to see cutting-edge research, hear from innovators in the field, and discover a passion for research.
In July 2024, I attended the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Boston, MA. I had the opportunity to listen to and meet physicians, scientists, and inventors who are propelling the medical field forward.
Additionally, I took a class from Bottega University tailored to expand on the talks at the conference, hone research skills, and explore healthcare careers and technological advances.
Scroll down to see the presentations that excited me most.
HeartWorks
HeartWorks is a nonprofit that works to research treatments for congenital heart disease. Currently, they are training stem cells to become cardiac muscle, which can be injected during open-heart surgery to strengthen hearts with CHD. This technique is also being used on potential heart donations, to make more donations viable.
I’m extremely interested in HeartWork’s vision and I would love to intern with them. I love that they support several research ventures and prioritize the patients and families.
CAR-T Cell Therapy
Dr. Carl June presented his research on CAR-T cancer cell therapy. This therapy involves training a patient’s immune cells to target cancer cells. It is incredibly precise and lessens rejection and allows for longer remission since the cells continue to divide.
I’m excited about this technology because it’s both more targeted and approaches disease from an innovative perspective.
Prime Editing
Dr. Anzalone presented prime editing, a new technique in gene editing that allows for “search-and-replace” changes to the genome. I was excited to hear about new technology in the field since I remember learning about CRISPR in middle school when it won the Nobel Prize.