LaKendria K. Brown, MS

LaKendria K. Brown, MS

PhD Candidate
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, Tennessee

Abstract 2962. The oncogenic role of epigenetic factor, SNF2L in PCa.

What are your long-term goals? 

My long-term career goal is to become a physician-scientist leading in pediatric-oncology with a focus in innovative-therapeutic translational and clinical research. 

Please share information about how the pandemic has impacted your research over the last two years. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted my research greatly over the last two years. Due to the pandemic, I have experienced disruptions in my academic research due to traditional research activities being largely suspended by our institution and the global shut-down. In addition, I was affected by COVID-19 first hand for over three months which further disrupted my research activity. Thus, recovering from COVID-19 has presented many limitations and impediments on my physical, mental, and emotional health, ultimately, impacting my research performance. Due to the constraints of the pandemic and halt of physical research, my timeline for completion of my degree and my future career goals were altered. Although there have been many unwarranted impacts on my physical research from the pandemic, I have been able to make positive progression on my research in other areas. During the pandemic, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other scientist and co-author two manuscripts that were recently published. I have also participated in our institutional research conferences at Meharry Medical College and local genitourinary Cancer conferences with Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center where I was awarded for my research in both scientific conferences. In addition, I utilized my time to conduct extensive literature research and expound more on my research topic, learn about different scientific methods and techniques, and stay abreast on different oncology topics. Over the last two years, I also had more time to participate in more institutional and virtual webinars offered for professional development and to engage more in the scientific oncology community. Overall, I have experienced and faced many setbacks and obstacles during the last two years from the pandemic; however, I have remained optimistic and resilient in my strides towards the progression of my research both academically and physically.