8/15/2009 - DiscoveryBioMed Hosts Multiple Summer Interns in 2009

DiscoveryBioMed was pleased to host two summer interns for the summer of 2009. The first, Ashley Kizer, was employed for the summer with the help of a Supplemental award for an active Small Business Innovative Research award from the NIH NIDDK that was part of the NIH Stimulus of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). DBM provided employment for Mr. Kizer during a gap between teaching positions. “Ashley is a talented and energetic science teacher in the Birmingham area. DBM provided gap employment for him. He was able to secure a new teaching position this Fall; however, he was so enthusiastic about what we were doing and what he learned that he will continue to develop Podcasts for DBM on his own time as a sales and marketing tool and for educational tools for his students based on what he learned about human cells and drug discovery” explained Dr. Erik Schwiebert, DBM’s Director. Ashley was involved in testing an existing electrical drug discovery bioassay to find drugs to help fight cystic fibrosis and was also involved in testing a voltage-sensitive dye based method to replace the electrical method.

The second intern, Itoro Obot, returned for a second summer under the McNair Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is a graduating senior at UAB majoring in biology who wishes to enter medical school in the Fall of 2010. Itoro returned to work actively on the same client project for cystic fibrosis that has now progressed from the pilot phase to the large-scale drug discovery phase. Itoro won third prize at last year’s concluding poster session. Building upon that experience, she won first prize at this year’s event. “We are very proud of Itoro and all that she accomplished for herself and on behalf of DBM,” exclaimed Dr. Schwiebert. “She has immense promise and she will be an outstanding physician and, hopefully, physician scientist in the near future.”

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