Nathan Solomon & Irene Oransky-Solomon Medical Student Research Awards
Two awards ($1,000 and $750) are offered to recognize and encourage excellence in investigation by medical students during research training.
Eligibility: Medical Students or Combined MD/PhD Students who are in research training or were in research training as of June 2026 are eligible. The applicant must be the first author of the abstract submitted in competition for the awards and plan to present the paper during the scientific sessions of the Southern Regional Meetings. Please note that it is not necessary for the senior author to be a member of SSCI.
For consideration of this award, the abstract has to suggest:
- investigator-initiated
- hypothesis-driven basic, clinical or behavioral research
- conducted in a mode of discovery
- whose study design, findings and conclusions satisfied the proposed hypothesis
- findings have or will have the potential to advance the practice of medicine.
2026 Nathan Solomon & Irene Oransky-Solomon Medical Student Awards
First
Rebecca Horowitz, Tulane University Health Sciences Center
"Mechanisms of Vaccine Hyporesponse in Hypertension"
Second
Anne D'Armond, Tulane University Health Sciences Center
"Metabolic And Survival Traits of Lung CD4+ Tissue-Resident Memory TH17 Cells in The Context of Klebsiella Pneumoniae"
Past Nathan Solomon & Irene Oransky-Solomon Medical Student Research Award Recipients
2025
- First Place - Rebecca Horowitz, Tulane University Health Sciences Center
"Mechanisms of Vaccine Hyporesponse in Hypertension" - Second Place - Parks Remcho, Tulane University Health Sciences Center
"Spatial Transcriptomics Reveals Lobar Specific B Resident Memory Cell (BRM) Transcripts Following Bacterial Pneumonia in Rhesus Macaques"
2023
- First Place - Jayla Mondy, University of Mississippi Medical Center
"MicroRNA-21 Overexpression Attenuates Excess Androgen-mediated Brown Adipose Tissue Lipid Droplet Hypertrophy in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome" - Second Place - Wilton Barlow, LSU Health Shreveport
"Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Group B Streptococci"
2022
- First Place - Daniel Irelan, University of South Alabama College of Medicine
"Pan- Or Subtype-Selective Phosphodiesterase-4 Inactivation Reduces Obesity And Improves Glucose Handling In Mice" - Second Place - Kei Takigawa, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso
"Histopathological Analysis Of Interstitial Cells Of Cajal And Neuromuscular Bundles In Pyloric Smooth Muscle In Patients With Refractory Gastroparesis Versus Control"
2021
- First Place - Jacob Pruett, University of Mississippi Medical Center
"Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibition Attenuates the Intrarenal Renin-Angiotensin System in a Rat Model of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome" - Second Place - Herman Odens, Jr., The University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine
"The Suppression of Collagen Induced Arthritis Using Collagen with Post-Translational Modifications"
2020
- First Place - Increased Viral Markers Correlate with Decreased Insulin Secretion
"C Max, GB Nelson, N Lenchik, T Rodriguez-Calvo, P Apaloaza, D Balcacean and I Gerling, Memphis, TN; Munchen, Germany. University of Tennessee Health Science Center" - Second Place - Mechanisms of Immune Evasion in Chemotherapy Induced Senescent Breast Cancer Cells.
"A Shahbandi and JG Jackson, New Orleans, LA. Tulane University School of Medicine"
2019
- First Place - Examining The Effect of a Cyclic Peptide Cxcr4 Antagonist, Ly2510924, in an Orthotopic Xenograft Mice Model on Colorectal Cancer Tumor Growth and Metastasis
"R Ahmad, D Levine, L Hellmers, G Maresh, R Moret, X Zhang, L Li and D Margolin, Brisbane, Australia; New Orleans, LA. University of Queensland School of Medicine" - Second Place - Metformin Increases Survival in T2dm Patients with Pancreatic Cancer and Lymphoma
"A Vacheron, A Wynn, J Zuber and S Solomon, Memphis, TN. University of Tennessee Health Science Center VA Medical Center Memphis"