ONCOLOGY
Yash Harkara
Here, you will find the projects I have been working on both in and out of ISM
Since January of 2016, I have been working on establishing a non-profit, known as Stems 4 Smiles. I have often times noticed that, especially in the society that I live in, there is a lot of wastage of all sorts of items, whether they be small or large, expensive or inexpensive, and among these are flowers. Many event centers and party venuesoften times decorate their massive halls with flowers, and usually, after there brief ceremonies are completed, all the blossoms are thrown away, never to be bothered again. However, I devised a way to put an end to such wastage.
Due to my experiences volunteering in Baylor Scott and White, I was able to see the joy that delivering flowers to patients gave them. They often forgot all about their traumatizing procedures and instead were elated to recieve the boquets. With this organization, I have set up a way to gather the once disposed flowers from party venues, and after refurbishing the flowers into a boquet, I distribute them to patients in hospitals. This is just a simple way to keep recycling the plants and renewing the joy. I have high hopes to see this organization grow and reach out to more patients, and I will see to it that it does. Read more about this at stems4smiles.com.
Stems 4 Smiles
Cancer Research
Cancer Research
In the summer of 2016, I had the pleasure of working in the OB/GYn department at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Here I worked for three months on devising a cure for breast cancer. I experimented on the effects of PD-1 Inhibitor (a drug typically used in the tretment of autoimmune disorders) on a localized, benign strain of breast cancer. After numerous experiments and trials, I have acheived promising results, as the implementation of this drug is working to activate ER-beta , a tumor suppressor, while diminishing other genes that promote cell proliferation and multiplication. I hope to returm to the lab next summer (in 2017) to continue my research in the next phase of testing
Original Work
Over the course of the first half of the semester, I worked incredibly hard on devising my Original Work. This is one step I took in my journey into medicine and improving the lives of people everywhere.