Maya Chan Selected to Present at National Society of GIM Annual Meeting
Maya Chan (Class of 2026) participated in Boston University’s Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP), where she met her mentors, Dr. Sushrut Waikar and Dr. Sophie Claudel, from the Department of Nephrology and at Boston Medical Center and the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Her project focused on studying Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu), a debilitating disease that predominantly impacts young agricultural workers in Central America and southern Asia. CKDu diagnosis often occurs at late stages and among individuals who have extremely limited access to healthcare. The exact cause of CKDu is actively being studied in endemic communities, but there is little research on the presence of CKDu in other countries. Maya has continued to investigate the presence of CKDu in Latinx communities in the United States, co-authoring the manuscript, “CKDu in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities.” She was selected to give an oral presentation at the upcoming National Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting, “State policy on standard dialysis access for undocumented immigrants and temporal changes in kidney disease-associated mortality among Hispanic individuals in the U.S.” She will also be participating in Kidney TREKS, a week-long research retreat and long-term mentorship program held at the University of Chicago. Maya hopes to continue research that addresses disparities in kidney-related health outcomes.
“I would not have these opportunities if not for the Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP), which I participated in last summer,” she said. “Since then, I have continued to work with my incredible mentors, Drs. Sushrut Waikar and Sophie Claudel, studying chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology.”