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| Tedi Begaj, a third year student in the School of Medicine, is conducting research to develop and deliver adeno-associated viral gene therapy in retinitis pigmentosa. |
Tedi Begaj, a third year student in the School of Medicine, has been awarded a Medical Research Fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He will conduct research in the lab of HHMI researcher Constance Cepko, PhD, at Harvard Medical School, continuing the research project Cone cell targeted gene therapy by AAV-mediated delivery that he began in 2013 when he received a Summer Medical Fellowship from HHMI.
Begaj’s award is co-funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), which is dedicated to funding innovative research to find preventions, treatments and cures for inherited retinal disorders. He will build on the research project that he launched in 2013 to develop and deliver adeno-associated viral gene therapy in retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative retinal disease that can lead to blindness. Begaj is targeting the preservation of cone photoreceptor cells, which are responsible for visual acuity and color vision, and which ultimately die in RP.
“Tedi exemplifies the caliber of student at UMass Medical School. In addition to his medical studies, he is pursuing innovative research that may lead to a novel gene therapy to prevent blindness in those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the School of Medicine. “As a gene therapy researcher myself, I was proud to support Tedi's application to the HMMI fellowship program and am delighted that he was chosen to receive this highly competitive fellowship.”
Begaj said he is grateful to have the opportunity to continue work in the Cepko lab, where he made valuable professional and personal relationships that will continue to benefit his research.
“I was given a lot of freedom to pursue my research ideas, as well as the resources to carry it out. I’m thrilled to be able to continue the process,” he said.
Begaj received first place in the Eighth Annual Massachusetts Medical Society Research Poster Symposium for Residents, Fellows and Medical Students for his basic research submission on the work that he did in the summer of 2013.
The HHMI fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend for a full year of research, as well as a $5,500 research allowance and a $5,500 fellow’s allowance. Begaj will have the opportunity to participate in Medical Fellows regional group events and to attend a science meeting with HHMI investigators. He will also attend the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting under the sponsorship of the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
Begaj is among 68 top medical and veterinary students selected from 37 schools in the United States to conduct full-time biomedical research beginning this summer. HHMI’s $2.8 million annual initiative is designed to develop the next generation of physician-scientists by giving the students a full year of mentored research training with some of the nation’s top biomedical scientists.
The HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program allows medical, dental and veterinary students to pursue biomedical research at academic or nonprofit research institutions anywhere in the United States except the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, or other federal agencies. The fellows put their medical school coursework on hold, and spend a year immersed in basic, translational or applied biomedical research. This year, 187 students from 76 institutions applied to the program. Each student applied with a mentor of his/her choice and submitted a research proposal.
The Medical Research Fellows Program has funded more than 1,600 students since it was established by HHMI 26 years ago.
Related link on UMassMedNow:
First-year medical student Tedi Begaj receives HHMI summer fellowship
