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Call it a gut feeling, but Shraddha Bhonsle wanted to spend the summer exploring, and she did just that. The second-year student from UNT Health Fort Worth’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine spent eight weeks in Boston as part of the prestigious National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes. Bhonsle is the first TCOM student to participate in the research program and chose to go to the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School to conduct critical diabetes and metabolic research.

“I honestly think it was one of my greatest experiences,” Bhonsle said. “I know I want to pursue research as a part of my career. Everyone there believed in what they were doing, coming in on weekends, and staying late to carry out experiments that sometimes didn’t even exist on paper yet.”

The National Institutes of Health sponsors the Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes through the NIDDK. It allows medical students to conduct research under the direction of an established scientist in the areas of diabetes, hormone action, physiology, public health, islet cell biology, or obesity at an institution with one of the NIDDK-funded Research Centers during the summer between the first and second year or second and third year of medical school. The program helps students gain an improved understanding of career opportunities in biomedical research and a comprehensive understanding of diabetes, its clinical manifestations, and its unsolved problems.

Growing up, Bhonsle always had a love for science and nutrition and was introduced to research in her undergraduate years at the University of California, Riverside.

“I’ve been fortunate to have incredible mentors who introduced me to metabolism and the liver,” Bhonsle said. “I continued working post-graduate at the University of California, San Francisco, and was introduced to organoids, the gut, and I was able to study fatty liver there.”

It was a natural fit when Bhonsle was paired with Dr. Marsel Lino, a leading research fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center, as they studied brown fat and its role in regulating metabolic function. Brown fat, also known as brown adipose tissue, is a type of body fat that plays a role in regulating body temperature and burning calories. They studied what kinds of signals those brown fats release how they have a role in very specific parts of the body in regulating glucose and energy.

Bhonsle and the other medical students had weekly lab meetings, faculty lectures, which included Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, who is often referred to as the “insulin godfather.” A Harvard Medical School professor and the Chief Academic Officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Dr. Kahn is a leading figure in diabetes research, particularly Type 2 diabetes.

“He’s renowned for transforming our understanding of insulin biology, and it was an incredible opportunity to learn from him,” Bhonsle said.

The experience in Boston was a logistical collaboration as much as it was a research endeavor, but faculty members at TCOM worked to make sure Bhonsle was able to get the opportunity.
“Shraddha’s persistence and passion to obtain an incredible and unique professional development experience are a role model for other students,” said Dr. Michael Smith, TCOM’s Year 1 curriculum director. “These types of research experiences provide great value added in preparation for residency and beyond.”

Bhonsle wants to incorporate research into her career as much as possible. It is no surprise that her interests are in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, which, as of 2021, only 19.7% who practice in that specialty were women. She recently presented a summary of her work at a scientific symposium for all program participants in Nashville, TN.

“My favorite part was the people and Boston itself,” Bhonsle said. “Between kayaking on the Charles, exploring the city’s history and architecture, and experimenting with truly fascinating science with my mentors and the friends I made there, it’s easily one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.”

You can learn more about the program here.

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