ND-ACES student researcher Anjali Nayar accepted to UND Medical School

UND graduate and ND-ACES undergraduate student researcher Anjali Nayar recently received some exciting news: she has been accepted to the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, one of seven medical schools she has applied to.

According to UND, “admission to UND’s Medical School is competitive.” The school receives approximately 1,800 applications per year and admits 78 students per cohort, which is an estimated acceptance rate of around 4 to 5 percent.

Anjali’s journey to medical school began in her hometown of Bangalore, India, where she grew up until she moved to Jamestown at the age of 16. “Big culture shock,” she said. “I lived in a city of 8 million people and moved to Jamestown with 15,000.” 

After finishing high school, Anjali chose UND for its pre-med program, in-state tuition, and proximity to family. “Staying closer to family, especially in a new country, was a big motivator,” she explains. 

As a pre-med student, her college experience was enriched by joining Amanda Haage’s lab during her sophomore year to work on an NSF EPSCoR funded research project, ND-ACES. “Her lab is particularly focusing on cancer cell metastasis, and we focus on this one focal adhesion protein called talin,” she explained. “I'm trying to understand what influences talin to move from its normal position at its cell membrane towards the nucleus. And we've also found that within the nucleus, it can interact with chromatin and cause gene expression changes and all that. So we’re trying to figure out what causes talin to move, and how that could affect the cell as a whole.”

Anjali’s work in Dr. Haage’s lab helped her develop many skills she’ll use in medical school and beyond. “The entire time I've been with her and her lab has taught me a lot about trying to do trial and errors by myself, becoming an independent thinker, being patient, and being able to run through protocols that are eight hours long without knowing if your results are going to be viable or not.”

She also credits Dr. Haage for preparing her for interviews and presentations, including two poster presentations at the ND EPSCoR Annual State Conference. “Presenting for a crowd has helped me better my communication skills, all of which helped me with my med school interviews, being able to answer questions that are thrown at you, or explaining how research helps in the medical field. All of that has helped.” she adds. 

Amanda Haage said she enjoys having undergraduates work on research in her lab. “It was great to have Anjali start on this project so early in her career. It’s amazing watching students' progress, not only in specific lab techniques, but in how they think about science seeing it done in real time. It’s really exciting to see her move on with her goals.”

Anjali graduated in the spring and is taking a gap year before she starts medical school. Her advice to aspiring medical students? “Absolutely [get involved in research]. Having my name on multiple posters has been great, has taught me a lot about presenting, communication, learning the basic sciences, and how that affects disease and everything you will learn in medical school. It's definitely very fundamental, and I think every undergrad student pursuing medicine should get into research.”