VCU news

By Lena Rivera

Julie Bonano, a M.D./Ph.D. student in the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Medicine, is one of 600 young researchers in the world who will be attending the 64th Annual Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, this summer.  This is the first time since 2010 that VCU has had a student chosen to participate in this exclusive event.

"I am so thrilled to have been selected. With such a large and competitive pool of applicants, I was not expecting it. I am very grateful to be one of the 600 young researchers," Bonano said. "I look forward to the opportunity to represent the university, my lab, and my department."

The multi-stage international selection process started in September 2013. Thousands of scientists under the age of 35 applied to take part in the 2014 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The majority were nominated by more than 200 academic partner organizations including Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), of which VCU is a member.

The annual Nobel Laureate Meeting is a weeklong event, June 29 to July 4, in which young researchers from 80 countries meet with nearly 40 Nobel Laureates (Nobel Prize winners). The comprehensive program includes lectures, discussion sessions and panel discussions conducted by the Noble Laureates.

During the meeting, the Nobel Laureates will discuss relevant topics such as global health, the challenges to medical care in developing countries, future research approaches to medicine and other topics relating to physiology and medicine. The Nobel Laureates will also participate in less formal small group discussions with the international young researchers in the afternoons and evenings.

"I am excited to learn from and network with the greatest scientists of our time," Bonano said. "I look forward to sharing the collaborations that I make in Germany with my colleagues at VCU when I return."

Networking and finding future collaboration opportunities in basic science and clinical research through this meeting are important goals for Bonano. She is also looking forward to experiencing Germany with other international students and experiencing cultures from all around the world coming together.

Bonano is working on her Ph.D. dissertation and is studying the behavioral effects of designer drug abuse with active ingredients in bath salts.

“Julie joined my lab in 2012, and she has made excellent progress in spearheading our work on new designer stimulants that have emerged as dangerous drugs of abuse not only here in the United States but throughout the northern hemisphere,” said S. Stevens Negus, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology. “The meeting in Lindau will offer Julie a wonderful chance to meet new international colleagues and broaden her research horizons.”

A former graduate student from Negus’ lab and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ahmad Altarifi, Ph.D., will also be attending the Lindau meeting.

“Dr. Altarifi is a Jordanian citizen who came to the United States to earn his Ph.D. in pharmacology from VCU,” Negus said. “After graduating in 2013 with the department’s highest student award, the Lauren A. Woods award, he returned to Jordan where he is now an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Jordan University of Science and Technology. It is a great pleasure to see our students enjoying this type of success.”

After completing her Ph.D., Bonano would like to pursue a residency in anesthesiology and a fellowship in pain management and also continue research on drug addiction.

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