在 2024年ACPHS研究研讨会, 23岁的兰登·汤普森描述了他四年的研究, 与ACPHS教员合作, fellows and other students on a novel pathway toward curing HIV.
As one of nine researchers – only two of them students – giving podium presentations during the annual research showcase, Thompson summarized an innovative approach to “shocking” HIV out of its hiding place by inhibiting an enzyme that may be found near the site where the virus integrates into DNA. 通过这种方式激活潜伏的HIV细胞, researchers hope they might expose them to therapeutic drugs that could kill them – providing a cure for a virus that has evaded such an end for decades.
汤普森说话像一个经验丰富的教育家, deftly alternating between the technical details of his work on RNA polymerase III’s impact on HIV latency with generalized, 易于理解的陈述研究人员的过程. He highlighted the lab’s “shock and kill” strategy with pop-culture images featuring characters from “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad.”
If there were moments when it seemed Thompson took the topic lightly, 事实远非如此. 在他演讲的前几天, he described the impact of being involved in such weighty work, 哪个有潜力改善数百万人的生活.
汤普森说:“这感觉像是一个很大的责任. “When you’re working in the lab, it’s like, I could do this task tomorrow. But maybe I should do it today – get it done – because that could be one step closer (to a cure).
“Even at time when you feel like the experiments aren’t working, 你不会觉得自己产出了多少, 你心里想, “如果我只贡献一小步呢??’”
汤普森对这项工作的贡献 Dr. 辛格的实验室 is a big step toward a personal aim: to earn dual doctorates in medicine and philosophy. As he heads toward graduation in May with a Bachelor’s in 微生物学 and Master’s in 分子生物科学, he has been accepted to two medical schools and is waitlisted for MD-PhD programs. With far fewer of the latter around the country, competition is fierce.
While med-school acceptance is an achievement many would embrace, 汤普森目前正在考虑是否接受一份研究工作, 然后重新申请医学博士课程，如果他没有被录取的话. 研究似乎是他生命中不可放弃的一部分.
事实上, Thompson has been unable to choose between his dueling passions for patient care and research since his years at Bethlehem High School. He was surprised to learn he could find his path toward both, just 5 miles from his Delmar home.
“I was thinking I’d have to go away to some big school to have these opportunities, 但他们就在市中心, 离我几英里远,他说.
He wanted to stay in the Albany area because of third passion: rowing. 他划船了, coached and competed in local and national regattas with a group based at the Hudson River’s Albany Rowing Center since he was 13. He considered pursuing his undergraduate degree somewhere with a Division I crew team but did not like the cutthroat vibe of those programs.
So he focused on finding a research-intensive school in the Capital Region. Knowing ACPHS as a pharmacy college, he was surprised to learn about research opportunities here. 他一到，医生. 辛格的实验室 was another auspicious discovery, a perfect fit for his dual interests.
“在这个实验室里，我们有两个重点. 我们关注的一个重点是艾滋病的治愈策略,汤普森说, describing that as pure scientific research with an important potential application. “然后是另一个, we actually look at HIV-associated neuroinflammation” – managing the symptoms of a disease.
Thompson began working in the Singh Lab the first semester of his sophomore year, delayed from an earlier start by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in his first year. He has spent 15-20 hours a week there ever since, taking on progressively more complicated tasks. 这学期, 大部分都是一致的, 有条不紊的工作取得了成果, as he published a scientific article and made presentations to regional and national audiences, including at conferences of the American Society of Virology and the Eastern New York Student Chapter of the American Society of 微生物学 (pictured above).
Dr. Singh counts mentoring Thompson and witnessing his progression from a “curious young student to a published young scientist” as one of the most satisfying aspects of his own job over the last several years.
“因为他的才华, 努力工作, 协作技能, 领导, 以及快速的学习能力, he rapidly emerged as a strong pillar to my research program and has immensely contributed to the research output as well as training of several undergraduate and graduate students in my lab,” Dr. 辛格说.
In addition to the work itself, Thompson was drawn to the lab by the collegiality of Dr. Singh和其他研究人员, as well as collaborations with adjacent labs run by Associate Professors Binshan Shi and Timothy LaRocca. He acknowledged the collaborative nature of the research in his symposium talk.
他并不后悔自己留在奥尔巴尼地区的决定. He has found a community of like-minded health and science students at ACPHS, where a commuter student like him can easily blend with classmates who live in dorms or off-campus apartments.
他还能划船，一周六天. Some chilly, gray mornings, he trudges through the intense physical workout that starts his day. 但其他时候, 早晨的节奏是不可思议的, as he glides through calm waters that reflect the sunrise’s transition from blue-violet to yellow and the occasional bald eagle flies overhead.
“就像在实验室里一样，”他说. “有时候你的实验并不奏效. But you’re in awe those moments when everything comes together nicely.”
