BUSM Student Receives AMA Foundation Research Seed Grant

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) student Alexander Lankowski, class of 2013, was awarded a $2,499 grant from the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s Seed Grant Research Program. Established in 2000, the program provides small grants to medical students, physician residents and fellows to conduct basic science or clinical research projects.

Lankowski is one of 43 individuals nationwide who received a seed grant this year. He is currently finishing a yearlong fellowship through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Harvard Medical School. Lankowski will be applying for residency programs in internal medicine or pediatrics, hoping to pursue a career in academic medicine, infectious diseases, and global health. He will use the funds to study HIV/AIDS treatment outcomes in Uganda.

Patients in sub-Saharan Africa frequently cite difficulty obtaining transportation from home to clinic as a significant barrier to receiving HIV care. His research project aims to evaluate transportation barriers to HIV care in rural Uganda. It will more precisely characterize the association between transportation barriers and treatment outcomes in hopes of better informing programmatic decisions regarding decentralization of HIV care and expansion of rural clinics.

The Seed Grant Research Program was created to encourage more physicians to consider research as a career option. The program not only supports the scientific discoveries of researchers, but also gives young investigators a positive grant experience early in their careers.