the Cutting Edge of Medicine
Colorado College biology major Allison Lynch ’06 and neuroscience major James O’Keefe ’05 interned last summer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), where they conducted cutting-edge research into immune system responses that adversely affect some bone-marrow transplant recipients.
Bone-marrow transplants have helped many patients with leukemia or other cancers. However, transplanted cells from normal donors sometimes produce too strong an immune response, attacking the patient’s own tissues — a phenomenon called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).
O’Keefe’s project established laboratory tests that will determine whether patients with auto-immune diseases react to the same antigens that caused problems for patients who developed GVHD after bone-marrow transplantation.
Lynch studied the recovery of immune function in leukemia patients who had received bone-marrow stem cells from healthy donors. Her research examined the effects of drugs given to control immune responses in these patients.
Dr. Jerome Ritz P ’04 ’06, a researcher at DFCI and Harvard Medical School, coordinated the internships with CC Professor Lamont Anderson. This is the first year a paid internship at DFCI has been offered formally through CC’s biology department. “We’re always trying to attract good students interested in biomedical research,” Ritz said. “We want to show them that it’s a worthwhile endeavor.”
Both Lynch and O’Keefe found the program influential.
“The internship paired us very closely with doctor mentors,” said O’Keefe, who is applying to medical school. “I got to take part in some of the more clinical conferences, which helped push me toward the clinical side of medicine.”
Lynch found that doing research in the large Boston medical community helped her decide on public health. “Immunology is the underlying basis of a lot of biomedical research,” she said. “It has a lot of applications for overall health.”
Would Lynch and O’Keefe recommend a similar internship to other CC students? “Definitely,” said Lynch.
“Absolutely,” O’Keefe agreed. “It was a great experience.”