Health Professions and Medical Sciences News

Debbie Lesser '19 is a catalyst, facilitating crucial conversations taking place in often highly sensitive situations. As a certified medical interpreter, she assists deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing patients and health care providers in communicating with one another regarding everything from mental health crises to detailed complex medical procedures.

Sherry Dadgar ’08 MS (bioinformatics) wants the future of medicine to empower patients. Dadgar, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University, launched her company, Personalized Medicine Care Diagnostics (PMCDx), in 2020 with a goal of delivering advanced clinical genomic diagnostic testing to patients and their physicians.

Many RIT students' experiences as undergraduates have helped them get into top graduate degree programs.

From pandemic response to rebuilding after natural disasters, RIT students will draw upon their foundation of community service in their careers after graduation.

A trio of trailblazing students who came to RIT from the university’s partner charter school will fulfill a long-term promise when they receive their college degrees at commencement this May. Zaid Abdulsalam, Ismael Cortes Jr., and Justice Marbury were among the first students to enroll at Rochester Prep High School, and they were the three students from the first graduating class in 2018 who chose RIT as their destination.

Three student teams showed what technology, the arts, and design means at RIT. They designed technology to help astronauts keep physically fit in space, incorporated virtual reality to enhance signing and captioning support for the Deaf, and built a modern sculpture of the human body made of computers.

The course Honors Science and the Law: Biological, Ethical and Legal Perspectives emphasizes how science permeates the profession of law and concludes with a mock trial, giving students the opportunity to use scientific evidence like cell phone triangulation, medical assessments, and crash reconstruction in the context of a real case.

For RIT biomedical sciences major Maduka Gunasinghe, compassion for others is a gift he shares freely and community service is the expression of his character. RIT has recognized his commitment to other people’s well-being with a Bruce R. James Distinguished Public Service Award. He will receive the award at a ceremony on April 5.

RIT graduate degree programs in engineering, science, and business were featured in the U.S. News & World Report 2023 edition of Best Graduate Schools, released in March.

The National Institutes of Health are funding RIT scientists to explore vesicular stomatitis virus’s (VSV) potential for treating prostate cancer. Associate Professor Maureen Ferran from the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences secured a three-year, $451,718 Research Enhancement Award (R15) grant from the NIH to investigate prostate cancer cells’ susceptibility to the virus.

Students and faculty from the exercise science program are using high-speed cameras, motion capture technology, and other sensors to analyze the motions of RIT baseball players as they swing the bat.

Diverse subjects involving safety and autonomous automobiles, Black women in computing, and Italian cinema are just some of the winning entries for this year’s student writing awards, sponsored by RIT’s College of Liberal Arts.