The American Brain Tumor Association has awarded the 2019 Rubinstein Award to Nyle Almeida for his project, “Synaptogenic Glioma Cell Enrichment in High Connectivity Regions of Adult Glioma.” Nyle, a 2019 ABTA Medical Student Summer Fellowship recipient, is a second year medical student at University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He chose to spend his summer learning neuro-oncology research with Shawn Hervey-Jumper, MD, a neurosurgeon at University of California, San Francisco.
Under Dr. Hervey-Jumper’s mentorship, Nyle conducted research focused on how certain areas within a glioma tumor can make connections with normal brain cells. The connections may help the neurons responsible for cognition (thinking and learning) work better. Their goal is to harness these connections to improve cognitive outcomes and quality of life for glioma patients.
Dr. Hervey-Jumper has been a supportive mentor to Nyle for two summers and says, “Nyle is undoubtedly a highly driven and passionate medical student, and I believe he’s more committed now than ever to a career as a neurosurgeon neuro-oncologist.”
The Lucien Rubinstein Award is given to the Medical Student Summer Fellowship recipient who scores the highest marks from a panel of expert scientific reviewers on his/her project’s final progress report. Recipients of this award receive $1,000 in recognition of their outstanding work. The award is named in honor of the late Lucien J. Rubinstein, MD, who was a pioneer in neuropathology at the University of Virginia and a world-renowned brain tumor researcher.
The ABTA would like to thank the scientific reviewers for their insightful review of all applications. For more information about research funded by the American Brain Tumor Association, visit https://www.abta.org/research/research-funding-impact/.
