The Department of Anesthesiology was one of 36 sites nationwide selected to host 2017 Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellows (MSARF). FAER created the MSARF program to encourage talented medical students to consider careers in anesthesiology research and perioperative medicine. The program offers medical students an eight-week anesthesia-related research experience and the opportunity to present research findings at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) annual meeting.
Our 2017 fellow Matthew Orlowski is a Pittsburgh native. He graduated from the Duquesne University Mylan School of Pharmacy with a BS in Pharmaceutical Science and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He is currently a fourth-year medical student at West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown, WV. During his fellowship, he worked with mentor Dr. Howard Gutstein. Matt’s project looked at the effects of PDGFR-beta and EGFR-induced analgesic tolerance to morphine in basal conditions and in rat models. The hope is that a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for growth factor-induced analgesic tolerance to opioids will lead to novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of analgesic tolerance to opioids. Matt has submitted an abstract, “Imatinib prevents EGF induced analgesic tolerance to morphine in opioid naive rats,” with the aim of presenting the group’s findings at the FAER MSARF Symposium at ASA 2017. In addition, Matt had the opportunity to shadow anesthesiologists at UPMC Presbyterian while completing his fellowship.