Second-year medical student Emily Anthone recently was awarded a 2024 Alpha Omega Alpha Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship.
The $5,000 fellowship will support Anthone’s research, titled “Investigating Disease Heterogeneity, Severity, and Progression in Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease Related to Cigarette Smoking.”
Only one student per institution can apply for the fellowship, and only 58 students nationwide received the fellowship this year.
Anthone, who started at the UNMC College of Medicine in 2023, came into the program unsure of where her medical passion would lay, but with research experience from her undergraduate days.
“In college, I worked as a student research assistant in the Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory and Epidemiology of Substance Use research group at the University of Southern California,” Anthone said. “This research looked at cannabis, alcohol, tobacco and other substance use trends in youth populations in order to examine patterns and consequences of substance use. This passion of mine blended well into my curiosity regarding the effects of substance use – like cigarette smoking – in disease progression of RA.”
At UNMC, she joined the college’s Enhance Medical Education Track program to explore possible study areas, eventually discovering an interest in autoimmune diseases.
“I have some family members and friends who have been affected by autoimmune diseases, so that was something I could see myself being passionate about,” she said.
Bryant England, MD, PhD, associate professor in the UNMC Division of Rheumatology, became Anthone’s research mentor in the program.
“Since I had kind of already been introduced to addiction science and cigarette smoking, we started talking about how cigarettes can affect disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis, manifesting in these extra-articular processes in RA, such as interstitial lung disease, which is what I decided to do my research topic this summer on.”
Anthone has always enjoyed research and sees it as being a part of her medical school and medical career.
“When I’m a physician, I hope to go into a field where I can continue to explore research.”
The fellowship calls for eight 40-hours weeks of research over the summer. Anthone said she is most excited about completing research under her own name.
“In undergrad, I didn’t get my name on any publications,” she said, adding that a lot of what she did was data input and helping with poster design.
“But now, I’m the one that’s going to be seeing those outcomes and using those statistical programs to figure out the answers to my questions, so I’m excited to do that.
“I’m also nervous to do that,” she said with a laugh, “because I’ve never run those statistical programs before or put this much time into something like this. So, I’m excited and nervous both.”
Dr. England said Anthone went above and beyond to be awarded the fellowship.
“As a medical student, you’re busy studying the textbooks and preparing for tests,” Dr. England said. “Emily not only sought a research project but put in the time and effort to carefully review the literature, come up with a new project and put together a high-quality proposal that was recognized at a national level.
“This provides an immersive summer research experience, as well as the opportunity to attend a national meeting, which is impressive at this stage of her academic career.”
Dr. England said the support of the UNMC College of Medicine and Dean Bradley Britigan, as well as the UNMC AΩA chapter, were integral to Anthone receiving the award.
“That speaks to this environment in the college of medicine and division of rheumatology,” he said. “We want to support our best and brightest. If they’re willing to put in that effort, to do hard things and to do them well, then we are going to get behind them.”
AΩA Chapter President Jason Shiffermiller, MD, praised Anthone on her work.
“I was very impressed with Emily’s research proposal, and I’m excited to see the work she’ll produce with the assistance of the AΩA’s Kuckein award,” he said.
Anthone will submit her research to present at the 2025 American College of Rheumatology Convergence Annual Meeting. Her travel to present at the national meeting will be supported by the AΩA award.