Day 3: Concluding the AMRF-Dartmouth Research Conference

This morning was the second and last day of the conference, and we were excited to have Yike, Rachel, Arun, and Christine present. After breakfast, we all waited eagerly in the lobby of Inspiration House before the talks. Before the talks, we had a great photo on the steps of Aravind, to commemorate this wonderful two day conference.

FINAL

The opening remarks were brief and then we launched into the meat of the conference. The first presenter was our TA Yike Jiang. She headed over to the room to set up, before anyone else got there, and her presentation was incredible. She was dynamic and had great illustrations to tell the story of the role of autophagy in HSV keratitis. She presented some of her already published work and talked about some of her findings from right before she came to the conference. With her passion and all-encompassing knowledge, watching her talk was a great example how we all aspire to present research.

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With energy in the room high and our minds primed, Rachel launched in her presentation on Ligneous Conjunctivitis. Unsurprisingly her talk was excellent and inspired crosstalk between her, Dr. Zegans, clinicians and scientists. She even wowed the crowd by signing off her presentation with a thank you in both English and Tamil.

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Next Arun gave his extremely relevant talk on treating Vitamin A Deficiency using Retinol Palmitate. It was clear that he had been engaging with the scientists here at Aravind, because he mentioned some of the state sponsored programs that Tamil Nadu has regarding Vitamin A, and incorporated that understanding into his presentation. The audience was very appreciative to hear what Arun had to say, and they offered suggestion and comments which were well received by Arun.

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Our final student talk was giving by Christine Park. The only way I can describe it is to paraphrase the words of a scientist that heard the talk who said “That was an amazingly detailed presentation if you only had data it would easily be a PhD thesis.” Her presentation on a novel and safer treatment for Retinitis Pigmentosa, which was so thorough the audience hardly had any questions to ask her.

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At the coffee break, there was a new sense of ease in the air, as we spoke with our Aravind colleagues without the pressure of performing looming over us. There was laughter and scientific chatter abounding, as we headed into to hear talks from some of the senior Aravind scientists.

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After the break, we had the privilege of hearing talks from the senior AMRF scientists and learning about the way that biomedical research complements and strengthens the medical care provided by the hospital. We heard about the practical applications of proteomics and next-generation sequencing to eye disease from Dr. Jeya Maheshwari and Dr. D. Bharanidharan, respectively. We also learned more about the molecular diagnosis of retinoblastoma from Dr. A. Vanniarajan and about stem cells and corneal transplantation from Dr. C. Gowripriya. Having the chance to learn from and ask questions of experts in their fields who have seen the way that these diseases affect populations in India was truly a unique opportunity. (Dr. Jeya Maheshwari and Dr. D. Bharanidharan pictures below)

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We enjoyed lunch at Inspiration House and chatted with the staff who have been introducing us to Southern Indian food for the past few days.

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After lunch, we headed to the second round of lab tours of the amazing facilities at Aravind. We donned our protective footware with an automatic applicator and were off. Aravind was generous enough to have their senior scientists take the time to engage with us, and the first lab we went to was that of molecular geneticist Dr. P. Sundaresan. He was an animated speaker who showed us the equipment in his lab like the real time PCR. He spent time talking to us about his career, and what brought him to Aravind. He spoke about his mentors and his projects. However what was truly exceptional was that he took the time to learn all of our names and our projects and to integrate facts relevant to us into his words. He filled us with his passion for science and as we headed down the hall we chatted with his PhD students about their work and how it related to our projects.

We then spent time with Dr. S. SenthilKumari in Ocular Pharmacology. She spoke with us about pharmacodynamics, as well as her projects on glaucoma. One of the most exceptional parts of Aravind is the equipment available. As Dr. SenthilKumari was explaining how draining of fluid by the trabecular meshwork can be modulated by drugs. She was showing us how to run an experiment to test the efficacy of this drug using donor eyes in Aravind’s Human Organ Culture Anterior Segment facilities. Be able to set how theory can be directly applied to patient samples and to see and be able to visualize the experiment is truly an unparalleled experience.

As we walked out of our last lab, we were surprised with a last minute opportunity to tour the lab of Dr. C. Gowipriya. In a short tour we saw the flow cytometry machine, RNA facilities, and confocal microscopes. We also learned about the applications that the machines have in research. After an informative afternoon, we headed for final coffee break and closing remarks session.

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To close the AMRF-Dartmouth Education and Research Conference, we mingled with Aravind researchers over cookies and tea and shared conversation about our homes and theirs. After two days of deep discussion about complex scientific topics, we loved the chance to get to know the Aravind researchers on a more personal level and to chat with them about this beautiful city and country that we are visiting. The Aravind researchers played a video about Madurai, and in return we shared Jake Gaba’s rendition of “Happy,” a video that we thought captured the Dartmouth spirit.

Finally, we went to dinner at Hotel Heritage, a resort where we could see the footprints of colonial history in India. We were joined by several of our hosts from Aravind Hospital, and we enjoyed a glorious buffet dinner with them. We again seized the opportunity to bombard our Aravind friends with questions about their lives, experiences, and views; we talked about everything ranging from comparative health systems to careers in medicine to popular movies. Dinner ended up stretching for hours, and yet we felt we still had so much to learn from our new friends from Aravind.

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Today, our time interacting with the students and many of the researchers at Aravind Hospital drew to a close. As Professor Zegans put it, perhaps we may run into our Aravind counterparts at some scientific conference somewhere, someday–and that would be truly amazing.

– Victoria Chi ’17 and Jalen Benson ’17