Lincoln Scholarship leads international student to prestigious Mt. Sinai internship
Support from the 海角论坛 Lincoln Scholars Program has helped Ward 鈥淩udy鈥 Alafef fulfill his college and career dreams.
A native of Swaida, Syria, the rising junior has worked in a prestigious program at the Mt. Sinai Hospital System in New York City, an exclusive opportunity that allows him to pursue various avenues of research and apply early for the hospital鈥檚 Ph.D. program.
鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 a hospital and an academic campus, you get to see science translate to improving patient lives,鈥 Alafef said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e pursuing any kind of pre-med or research experience, you get to interact with so many physicians and scientists.鈥
At Mt. Sinai, Alafef works in a computational lab, where his day-to-day duties primarily consist of biological computational analyses. He鈥檚 in the lab with a post-doctoral student and a Ph. D. student, working on a machine-learning model capable of classifying and predicting primary immunodeficiency genes.
鈥淭he goal is, if you provide the model with enough information about genomic annotation, it would be able to predict if a person is prone to or vulnerable to having an issue or disease,鈥 he said.
Alafef emphasized the importance of 鈥減ersonalized medicine.鈥 His interest in computational biology 鈥 which he described as a niche but growing field 鈥 comes from his family tree.
鈥淏ioinformatics has the ability to transform medicine, it鈥檚 the ability to create treatments or therapies specific to an individual's body and genome so you can avoid side effects or complications,鈥 Alafef said. 鈥淭hat relates very much to my grandma (with) whom I grew up. She was very allergic to anesthetics and didn鈥檛 know for a long time in her life.鈥
It鈥檚 his way of helping people 鈥 finding out how to read someone鈥檚 genome to understand optimal individual care. It can be a game-changer for low-income or rural populations as well, Alafef said.
鈥淚t can make medicine accessible to communities that are vulnerable to certain diseases,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to incorporate as much data from as diverse of a population as possible to help our understanding of diseases and see what populations or underserved communities are facing in the health sector.鈥
Alafef鈥檚 internship is through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program for Underserved Scholars (SURP4US), which allowed him to work with the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine in the Mt. Sinai Hospital System in New York City.
Part of why Alafef wanted to go to New York City was for connections, both academically and socially. He said the Lincoln Scholars Program at 海角论坛 has already helped immensely in both areas.
Those connections include his professors 鈥 he鈥檚 a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) and data science 鈥 who have been instrumental in his journey.
鈥淚 really, really like my professors at 海角论坛, and I have such a good relationship with them,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey provided me with letters of recommendation, helped me through my applications and guided me through the whole process, and they鈥檙e supporting me now in my Ph.D. application.鈥
The internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital is challenging, to say the least, but Alafef has a history of overcoming obstacles. Last summer, he completed a backpacking program in the Alaskan wilderness as a part of the Lincoln Scholars Program summer enrichment experiences.
鈥淭he premise of the Lincoln Scholars Program is to challenge yourself, build yourself up in so many different ways,鈥 he said. 鈥淎fter graduating, you鈥檙e able to incorporate yourself into society as a leader to advocate for change and to have a positive influence on society.鈥
