Growing as a Researcher at MHRI
One
of the great things that happens at MedStar Health and MHRI is the growth of
our associates.
At
the end of February, Bonnie Carney defended her PhD dissertation entitled,
“Hypopigmented Burn Hypertrophic Scar Contains Melanocytes that can be Signaled
to Repigment by Alpha Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone”. This defense represented
the culmination of her doctorate degree in the Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Bonnie’s thesis work
was advised by Dr. Dean S. Rosenthal, an Associate Professor in the department,
as well as by Dr. Jeffrey W. Shupp, the Director of the Burn Research Program
at MedStar Health Research Institute, and an Associate Professor of Surgery and
Biochemistry at Georgetown.
Bonnie’s
thesis research was completed in the Firefighters’ Burn and Surgical Research
Laboratory at MedStar Health Research Institute where she started as a
volunteer in 2013. She was then hired as a full time Research Associate in
2014. She then began her doctoral program in 2015. She graduated from the
University of Maryland, College Park in 2014 with a degree in Chemistry and
minor in Mathematics.
Her
work, which studied dyschromia in post-burn related hypertrophic scarring,
seeks to development mechanistic treatments for dyschromia, an aesthetic
symptom of scar that can have lasting psychosocial effects on burn survivors.
Dyschromia is difficult to predict, heterogeneous, shows little improvement
over time, and is pervasive amongst certain patient populations. Bonnie studied
treatment of hypo-pigmentation with synthetic alpha melanocyte stimulating
hormone, which proved to be efficacious in in vitro modeling in
scar-derived cells, as well as in in vivo modeling in animals. These
treatments may be more efficacious, tissue sparing, and more widely applicable
compared to the limited currently available techniques.
She
would like to thank Drs. Rosenthal and Shupp for their support in this process.
She would also like to thank Drs. Moffatt, Travis, Johnson, and Alkhalil for
their mentorship. Finally, she would like to thank members of the FBSRL who
have contributed to her research over the past few years. She hopes to make an
academic career out of studying skin fibrosis in an effort to improve the lives
of those affected by burn injury.
In addition to this great work, Bonnie is al the recipient of a student grant from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery towards continuing her research.
In addition to this great work, Bonnie is al the recipient of a student grant from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery towards continuing her research.
Congratulations, Dr. Carney! Thank you for being a part of the
MHRI family and to those who helped you along the way.
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