Visit to Los Angeles

This weekend I traveled to Los Angeles to visit my Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Julie, Grandma Elise, cousins Rivkah, Dvorah, Hannah, and Akiva. And my dad, step-mom, and brother Alex drove down from Sacramento as well. We visited the Watts Towers, constructed over a period of decades by Simon Rodia, an uneducated Italian immigrant who moved to Watts in 1921. Rodia was a laborer by day and in the evenings and weekends he would work on the towers, which are made of rebar covered in concrete. Rodia covered the concrete with shards of glass soda bottles, broken plates, tiles, sea shells, and other found objects like a boot. He used only simple tools like a hammer and chisel and bent the rebar on the nearby railroad track to make the curved structural elemets. He didn't use any scaffolding either so climbed up the towers to work, until he finished in his late 70s. At one time the city tried to tear down the towers, claiming they were an eyesore and not structurally sound. A truck pulled cables attached to the tops of the towers, but the cables snapped and the demolition effort was abandoned. The towers have not wavered despite many earthquakes and being exposed to the elements. They are truly an amazing piece of artwork.

We also visited the University of Southern California campus; USC has graduated the most Olympians of any university in the country. And we ate dinner at Shiloh, the best Kosher restaurant I've ever been to.

The family, minus Dad.

More pictures:

Summertime!

I just finished the third week of my summer lab rotation. Most of the folks in the lab come from a chemistry background, so I'm learning a lot from them and trying to dust off the cobwebs from orgo. I ran a thin layer chromatography experiment this week and everyone made fun of me because I cut the silica strip WAY too big. It's interesting contrasting a chemistry-based lab with the biology labs I've been in previously. Just as in biology, there are certain generally accepted methods for doing things. For example, when doing chemistry one does not use a pipetman with plastic tips, so ubiquitous in biology labs. Instead, one uses a glass syringe that won't be dissolved by organic solvents. It's funny though, the chemists in the lab often break cardinal rules of the biology lab. For instance, people pore the supernatant from a bacterial culture down the sink. Or they leave the plumbing of chromatography equipment sitting in aqueous buffers, making it prime real estate for bacterial growth. I'm enjoying sharing tips and hints with labmates from different backgrounds.

The weather was warm and sunny the past week, so I got out for plenty of bike rides and runs. Two weekends ago I ran in the Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon, a beautiful race mostly along the Huron River. I thought it was an impressive show of community spirit, with many of my friends and professors running and a large post-race rally followed by the Taste of Ann Arbor festival. Picture at one representative point on the course:

After taking a two-hour nap following the race, I traveled to the Detroit Institute of Art with a group of medical students and professors as part of a Arts and History in Medicine trip. The museum's most famous piece is a multi-wall mural by Diego Rivera depicting Detroit's history and industry; here is just one wall:

The DIA has many other famous works, including some by van Gogh and Picasso, that we saw only briefly, so I'll definitely need to return.

And finally, I'd just like to note that it's been great to see hordes of bicyclists out and about on the streets of Ann Arbor. I've noticed that only a fraction of bicycle commuters wear helmets in Ann Arbor. Usually people out for long rides wear a helmet, but folks on short trips tend to forgo them out of convenience. The bicycle helmet debate is still raging, with conflicting scientific evidence on both sides regarding the efficacy of helmets. If you were to compare the outcome of a helmeted rider versus a helmetless rider in any given crash, the helmeted rider probably has an increased chance of faring better. However, there's evidence that helmet laws decrease the number of cyclists on the road (increasing the risk for the remaining cyclists due to the "safety in numbers effect," not to mention diminishing the huge cardiovascular health benefits to cyclists in general), cause cyclists to ride faster, and cause motorists to pass cyclists more closely.

On the other hand, the evidence for the efficacy of motorcycle helmets is pretty much irrefutable, yet the state of Michigan is currently looking into repealing mandatory helmet use for motorcyclists:

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/repeal_of_michigans_motorcycle.html

The argument for repeal is that the helmet law is hurting tourism in Michigan...I have trouble imagining someone canceling their vacation to Michigan because they have to ride with a helmet on their motorcycle. Meanwhile, the health care savings due to helmet use in Michigan are in the many millions of dollars.

Phlomax Pics and Video

M1 year is over. And I'm at home for the Memorial Day Weekend, kayaking in the Magothy River, feasting on salmon with black beans, and visiting the new R.E.I. store in Columbia, MD--finally my favorite store has come to my hometown! On Monday I'm heading back to Ann Arbor to start on my first lab rotation, in which I will be developing a dendrimer. A dendrimer, as I learned this week, is a molecular dandelion seed.
It is a collection of functional groups radiating out from a simple chemical core. Dendrimers can be used as contrast agents in MRI, for studying cellular biology like signal transduction, and for drug delivery. I'm excited to report my project is TOP SECRET, so I cannot reveal any details.

And now for the video and pictures of Phlomax's Med Student Love.

Phlomax

Between this my last post, I completed the 5-week infectious disease sequence, which is generally regarded as the toughest sequence of M1 year. Tough because there were dozens of pathogens to memorize with associated microbiology, pathology, clinical presentation, and mechanism of transmission. Then there were just as many drugs with mechanism of action, side effects, and uses to memorize. It was still a mostly fun sequence though because it was very well taught and it was our first clinically oriented sequence. Now we're on embryology which is horribly taught but fortunately will be over soon. Last we have one week of human growth and development before summer vacation begins after Memorial Day. I'll be starting my first lab rotation with Dr. Jason Gestwicki on May 31.

A lot has happened in the last month and a half. For one, the weather has dramatically improved, which means I've been getting out for regular bike rides. Last week I did a complete tune-up of my road bike, installing a new cassette, front chain rings, and chain. I've also been training for the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half Marathon coming up on June 5. Yesterday I went out for a long run loop but drastically under-estimated the length of the loop and ended up walking 4 miles at the end.

In other news, I traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan a few weeks ago for the Michigan State Medical Society annual meeting. "Kalamazoo" is the Indian word for a footrace in which you had to run to the river and back before a pot of water boiled. The town didn't really have anything else interesting going on. At the conference we presented a number of resolutions, including one on which I was an author stating that the MSMS should urge Michigan city governments to implement bicycle sharing programs. Such programs have been implemented all over Europe and in some U.S. cities like Washington, D.C. One program is just starting this month in Madison, Wisconsin, and since the demographics of Ann Arbor are similar to those of Madison we thought Ann Arbor would be a good spot for bicycle sharing. Even people that own bikes can use bike sharing programs because they're great for one-way trips, and the bikes are weather-proof if you don't want to get your own trusty steed dirty. There are bike kiosks situated throughout town and members can check out a bike whenever they want with the swipe of a card and return it to any other kiosk. The price is usually free for the first half hour and increases steeply thereafter, to encourage quick commuting trips and discourage long lazy day trips. Anyway, the MSMS loved the resolution and it passed easily. Next we're going to present the resolution at the AMA national meeting in June.

And the other big event was the Biorhythms Spring Show, which was Saturday. The show featured a Mance (Man Dance), African style dance, jump rope dance, bhangra, and other dances and musical performances. And there was a rap! We called ourselves Phlomax and the name of our act was Med Student Love. We used the beats to Tupac's California Love and Eminem's The Real Slim Shady to make a rap about med student life with a surprise twist at the end. We changed Slim Shady to Dean Petty, the Dean of Education for the med school who is leaving for Wisconsin this year. We had her walk on stage at the end of the performance, which the crowd loved. Unfortunately I don't have a video of the performance, but I will soon.

DP Day

Yesterday I traveled to Detroit with five M1 colleagues to volunteer with the Detroit Partnership's DP Day. This is an annual day of community service in which Michigan students spend several hours drawing murals, cleaning up parks, clearing vacant lots, and working on gardening projects. Transportation and lunch are provided for free, making it an easy opportunity for students to learn more about Detroit and lend a helping hand. In the mid-20th century, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the United States, with a population over 1.5 million. In the last 10 years, Detroit's population decreased 25% to its current level of 750,000. My group was assigned to the Brightmoor neighborhood, which was once a beautiful, thriving community but is now full of abandoned homes and crumbling, vacant school buildings. There are no stores or groceries nearby, forcing residents to eat at McDonald's.

Upon arrival in Brightmoor, we ate lunch at St. Christine's Soup Kitchen, which serves hot meals every Tuesday and Saturday. There we met some children from the community and a couple of energetic community organizers. For lunch we had Shepherd's pie, salad, rolls, and an assortment of desserts. After eating we met Billie, a master gardener and community activist who had recently moved to Brightmoor with her husband to help revitalize the neighborhood. She showed us a park and community garden where they were growing fruits and vegetables for residents in this "food desert." Some things they could grow year-round in a greenhouse. Then she took us to an abandoned house that had not been lived in for a decade. We cleaned up trash in the lot, boarded up windows, raked up leaves, and leveled the front lawn, which had been disrupted by water flowing from a broken pipe. The neighbor to this abandoned house was very grateful and came out to help us. We went to two other vacant lots and cleared them of trash, of which there was plenty.

In the late afternoon we attended the DP Day Rally at Stoepel Park. This rally was unfortunately a waste of time, and I've told the DP Day organizers that it should not be part of future DP Days, or should at least be made optional. I learned a lot more while I was working than at the rally; the rally speakers were not inspiring or interesting (probably because we couldn't hear most of what they were saying). What's more, the students littered about as much trash at Stoepel Park as they cleaned up during the day--papers, pizza boxes, and Red Bull cans were all over the place, and some trash blew away into the community before it could be recovered. Our time would have been much rather spent with a couple more hours working than attending the rally.

Here are some photos:

Lunch at St. Christine's

The Team
Boarding up windows
Cleaning up trash

Tomorrow is Hash Bash Ann Arbor

I won't be attending, but was intrigued.

Here are some photos from my sister Liz's visit last weekend:
These were taken during a walk over the Argo dam and along the Huron River, on a very sunny Sunday afternoon. On Saturday Liz and I attended a conference in memory of Sujal Parikh, a fourth year Michigan medical student who was tragically killed in a traffic accident last year while doing research in Uganda. The conference was called "The Social (Justice) Network"and it featured talks by professors and students on efforts to bring health care to disadvantaged people around the globe. The keynote speaker was Peter Mugyenyi, founder and director of the Joint Clinical Research Center in Kampala, Uganda. He talked about how the recent economic recession has led PEPFAR and other aid agencies to drastically reduce funding of ARVs for the treatment of AIDS in the developing world. The conference organizers hope to make it an annual tradition.

Liz's visit coincided with the final exam for our Central Nervous System Sequence, which was mostly neuroanatomy. The anatomy practical exam was especially tough, but fortunately it was the last anatomy exam ever! Our next sequence, starting Monday, is infectious diseases. This past week we learned how to do the neurology, ear nose & throat, and oral physical exams. We also learned a little about the in-depth mental status exam that psychiatrists do, and we had several interesting lectures on the Tuskegee experiments, child abuse, and LGBTQQ patients. On Thursday, our interpretive projects for the Family Centered Experience curriculum were due. My partner Kellianne and I made a video based on the everyday sights and thoughts of patients with chronic illness (my patient has type I diabetes, Kellianne's has multiple sclerosis). Kellianne happened to have knee surgery to repair a torn ACL several weeks ago, so I accompanied her to surgery to get some hospital footage. You can watch our video here. Our video project will be presented along with many others at a special reception on April 20 for the FCE families.

I'm starting to become very busy with the heap of extracurriculars I've taken on for next year. I'm a student coordinator for the Delonis free medical clinic, co-coordinator of the Students Teaching AIDS to Students program (med students teaching local high schoolers about HIV/AIDS), an editor for the Hippo med student magazine, and one of the leaders of the MedRunners group. Most exciting of all, I'm leading a group of 8 student rappers on a performance at the spring Biorhythms show May 14!

Spring Arrived Today!