WVU medical student selected for prestigious NIH scholars program, hopes to put knowledge to work in his home state

Jack Victory, a third-year medical student at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and West Virginia native, was recently selected as one of the 50 students nationally to attend the National Institutes of Health Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP).

The MRSP is a 12-month intensive research program where medical scholars from across the United States participate in a variety of training and research activities under the guidance of an NIH advisor and research mentor, while living on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

“We were pleased to support Jack’s application for this very competitive research program at the NIH,” said Norman Ferrari III, M.D., vice dean for medical education and chief academic officer. “We are all so proud of him and know he will represent us well at the NIH.”

Victory applied to the program with an interest in immunological research, specifically immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, which is in line with his current research at the School of Medicine where he works with Brock Lindsey, M.D., in the Department of Orthopaedics’ Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory.

“One of the things I am passionate about is finding safer ways to provide cancer therapy,” said Victory. “With immunotherapy, the side effects are often mild in comparison to traditional chemotherapy, so advancing this research and treatment can not only help to treat cancer, but can give someone their life back.”

Because cancer is a growing epidemic in the United States and particularly in West Virginia, Victory hopes that his time in the MRSP will kickstart his lifelong career of research to provide solutions to a vulnerable population, and give him the opportunity to make significant contributions to the field of immunological research.

Victory says his time at the School of Medicine has given him the space to learn what he’s passionate about and hopes that during his year in the MRSP he will continue to be exposed to opportunities that set him up for the rest of his career.

“I grew up in a town that is smaller in population than the number of people that the NIH employs in Bethesda, Maryland,” said Victory. “That being said, I think that WVU excels at taking raw talent out of small West Virginia towns and giving them the exposure that they need to then go on and find opportunities that best suits them. For me, that opportunity is the NIH.”

Advancing medical research and making the case to expand research in West Virginia are just some of the outcomes that Victory hopes to accomplish through his time in the MRSP.

“As a West Virginian, when you have big opportunities, you want to bring many people along with you,” said Victory. “I’m excited to have this opportunity because it opens up a pipeline for other West Virginia students who might not have had exposure to research early in their training process, but now will have a foot in the door at the NIH and other places with a lot of influence.”

Victory is only the second student from West Virginia to be selected for this program, after Sundus Lateef, M.D., in 2019.

“I credit a lot of my opportunity to Dr. Lateef because she championed me through the entire application process,” said Victory. “She was a tremendous mentor to me, and I’m looking forward to following in her footsteps and eventually serving in that same role for the next WVU student who’s interested in having research as a part of their career.”

In addition to his selection to the MRSP, Victory was recently selected to membership to both the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

After he completes the MRSP, Victory will finish medical school and apply for general surgery residency. He says that his goal is to be a lifelong researcher, continuing to make advancements in immunological research and cancer therapy.

For more information on the School of Medicine’s M.D. program, visit medicine.wvu.edu/students.

-WVU-

mgs/4/19/23

Cassie Thomas
Director, Communication and Marketing
WVU School of Medicine
304-376-1829; cassie.thomas@hsc.wvu.edu