At her poster, Cori Sutton listens to Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence Faculty Development Coordinator Dr. Vanessa Wong as Native Hawaiian Health Department Community Engagement Director Mele Look looks on.
Kamehameha Schools graduate Reid Akana attends the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The past two months, though, he has been back home in Hawaiʻi as a summer research intern at The Queen’s Medical Center. Someday, as an MD/PhD, Akana may help to improve treatment and survival for patients battling gastrointestinal cancer. In his research project, he focused on genetic mutations among patients with gastrointestinal cancer, seeking to learn whether and how those mutations can determine how patients will respond to chemotherapy and affect how long they live. Akana, who hopes to attend the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM ) after MIT, is one of several young people taking part in the 2016 Department of Native Hawaiian Health Summer Research Internship and The Queen’s Medical Center Summer Research Internship.
