University at Buffalo (UB)
Published June 13, 2011 This content is archived.
UB medical student Andrea Matho is one of 116 students nationwide to win a prestigious clinical research fellowship from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
During the one-year fellowship, she will research the role of oligodendrocytes—brain cells responsible for producing myelin—in schizophrenia.
She also will also will assist in a clinical trial of fingolimod, an FDA-approved multiple sclerosis drug, for individuals with schizophrenia.
Matho, who is deferring her fourth year of medical school for the fellowship, developed an interest in schizophrenia during her psychiatry rotation at UB.
“There’s not much known about the pathophysiology of the disease, so I thought it would be worthwhile to find out what I could learn and how I could help," says Matho, who will work in the molecular neuropsychiatry laboratory of Joseph Buxbaum, PhD, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation selects exceptional medical students to participate in clinical research at one of 12 host medical schools. The clinical research fellowship began in 2000 with 42 fellows. To date, 837 have participated.