2012 Marmur Symposium

On March 26, 2012, Einstein’s Graduate Program held its 16th annual Julius Marmur Symposium – A Graduate Student Research Symposium. The event is named for Dr. Julius Marmur, a renowned Einstein scientist who is remembered as one of the founding fathers of molecular biology and as a pioneer in the use of yeast as a model organism for studying genetics. The award recognizes outstanding research by Einstein’s best and brightest, offering them a platform for sharing their work with the rest of the medical school.

The daylong event started with morning presentations by the three Julius Marmur Award recipients, Dr. Abhishek Bhattacharya, Dr. Yong (Tiger) Zhang, and Vivek Patel. Dr. Bhattacharya, now a postdoc at Columbia University, completed his doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Nicholas Baker and published his work in the high-impact journal Cell in 2011. Dr. Zhang completed his doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Vern Schramm, during which he published an impressive four first-author research papers, and is now a postdoc at the Scripps Research Institute. As an M.D.-Ph.D. student, Mr. Patel is completing the Ph.D. portion of Einstein’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the lab of Dr. Robert Singer and will soon start the two years of clinical rotations toward completing his medical training.

The event also included an afternoon session at which more than 60 graduate and MSTP students presented their research in poster format. Presenters discussed their work with faculty members, current students, and newly accepted applicants to Einstein’s graduate school. This latter group was able to see the extraordinary breadth and quality of research that is conducted by students at Einstein while getting a glimpse into the exciting future of the science that awaits them.

The day was organized by the Graduate Division and the Student Symposium Committee, which included abstract editor Sabriya Stukes and moderator Clarissa Czekster.