Hi everyone! My name is Vignesh Elangovan, and I am currently a rising junior majoring in Molecular Biology. I am also minoring in Chemistry and Statistics with a Certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. Some of my hobbies include playing basketball and tennis, as well as running.

My current professional goal is to attend medical school to purse a medical degree. I hope to be a physician one day! In addition, I am also interested in continuing research during my academic career. Therefore, I am exploring MD/PhD or Physician-Scientist career paths as well. Nonetheless, the Health Sciences Research Fellowship is a great opportunity for me to interact with other like-minded peers with similar academic endeavors or interests. I can connect with people who are studying a research topic similar to mine or others who are studying completely different in the science field. I will also be able to develop connections within the Honors College, which is a great resource when I plan on applying to medical school.

I am doing research in the Patel Lab, under Dr. Ravi Patel. Our lab focuses on radiation oncology and immunology. My research project is using targeted radionuclide therapy to improve the
success of adoptive T cell therapy (ACT). Chimeric antigen receptor therapy (CAR T therapy), which is a type of ACT, is an immunotherapy treatment with limited efficacy with solid tumors. This could be due to an insufficient conditioning regimen – may include chemotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy, and radiation in order to make room in the patient’s bone marrow for new blood stem cells to grow, help prevent the patient’s body from rejecting the transplanted cells and help kill any cancer cells that are in the body. Therefore, we are studying LLP2A labeled with 67Cu, which is a type of targeted radionuclide therapy, in order to create a more effective conditioning regimen.