Minority Medical Students Receive Support to Pursue Hematolog...( WASHINGTON June 5 -- The American So...),Health

WASHINGTON, June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announces the selection of 15 participants for its 2009 Minority Medical Student Award Program (MMSAP), which encourages minority medical students to pursue an interest in hematology research. Under the program, each award recipient will receive the support of a research mentor and a career development mentor, travel stipends to attend the ASH annual meeting, and a subscription to the scientific journal Blood, the official journal of ASH.

"This award was initiated in 2004 and aims to benefit both the recipients and the field of hematology as a whole," said ASH President Nancy Berliner, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. "The MMSAP program is designed to encourage the best students from traditionally underrepresented groups to pursue careers in hematology research."

For an eight- to 12-week period, MMSAP participants will work closely with their mentors on a hematology-related research project. The subjects investigated by this year's students include lymphoma, leukemia, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, and multiple myeloma. The awardees will also have the opportunity to present the results of their research at ASH's annual meeting in December, one of the largest medical meetings in the country with more than 20,000 attendees.

The 2009 MMSAP winners are:

• Nnenaya Agochukwu, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Shreveport
• Mohamad Alghothani, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana College of Medicine
• Imo Akpan, University of Illinois - Chicago, College of Medicine
• Jamie Brewer, University of Illinois - Chicago
• May Cho, Meharry Medical College
• Hector R. Flores-Bermudez, Universidad Central del Caribe - School of M
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