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Student will attend international meeting with Nobel Prize winners

By Lena Rivera

University Public Affairs

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Julie Bonano, a M.D./Ph.D. student in the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of

Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Medicine, is one of 600 young researchers in the

world who will be attending the 64th Annual Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, this

summer. This is the first time since 2010 that VCU has had a student chosen to participate in

this exclusive event.

"I am so thrilled to have been selected. With such a large and competitive pool of applicants, I

was not expecting it. I am very grateful to be one of the 600 young researchers," Bonano said. "I

look forward to the opportunity to represent the university, my lab, and my department."

The multi-stage international selection process started in September 2013. Thousands of

scientists under the age of 35 applied to take part in the 2014 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The

majority were nominated by more than 200 academic partner organizations including Oak Ridge

Associated Universities (ORAU), of which VCU is a member.

The annual Nobel Laureate Meeting is a weeklong event, June 29 to July 4, in which young

researchers from 80 countries meet with nearly 40 Nobel Laureates (Nobel Prize winners). The

comprehensive program includes lectures, discussion sessions and panel discussions

conducted by the Noble Laureates.

During the meeting, the Nobel Laureates will discuss relevant topics such as global health, the

challenges to medical care in developing countries, future research approaches to medicine and

other topics relating to physiology and medicine. The Nobel Laureates will also participate in

less formal small group discussions with the international young researchers in the afternoons

and evenings.

"I am excited to learn from and network with the greatest scientists of our time," Bonano said. "I

look forward to sharing the collaborations that I make in Germany with my colleagues at

VCU when I return."

Networking and finding future collaboration opportunities in basic science and clinical research

through this meeting are important goals for Bonano. She is also looking forward to

experiencing Germany with other international students and experiencing cultures from all

around the world coming together.

Bonano is working on her Ph.D. dissertation and is studying the behavioral effects of designer

drug abuse with active ingredients in bath salts.

“Julie joined my lab in 2012, and she has made excellent progress in spearheading our work on

new designer stimulants that have emerged as dangerous drugs of abuse not only here in the

United States but throughout the northern hemisphere,” said S. Stevens Negus, Ph.D., professor of

pharmacology and toxicology. “The meeting in Lindau will offer Julie a wonderful chance to

meet new international colleagues and broaden her research horizons.”

A former graduate student from Negus’ lab and the Department of Pharmacology and

Toxicology, Ahmad Altarifi, Ph.D., will also be attending the Lindau meeting.

“Dr. Altarifi is a Jordanian citizen who came to the United States to earn his Ph.D. in

pharmacology from VCU,” Negus said. “After graduating in 2013 with the department’s highest

student award, the Lauren A. Woods award, he returned to Jordan where he is now an assistant

professor of pharmacology at the Jordan University of Science and Technology. It is a great

pleasure to see our students enjoying this type of success.”

After completing her Ph.D., Bonano would like to pursue a residency in anesthesiology and a

fellowship in pain management and also continue research on drug addiction.