The Pulse recently sat down with the primary authors from the recently released Journal of Medical Sciences (JMS), an online, student-led, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, which provides a platform for NEOMED students, faculty and affiliates to publish original research, opinion pieces, editorials, reviews, abstracts and other works.
Fourth-year medicine student Kelly Kimball shared insights from her publication, titled “Using ancient spices to treat chronic diseases: Tumeric’s potential to modulate disease pathogenesis in rheumatoid Arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.” The article was coauthored with fourth-year medicine student Giovanna Leone and Bina Mehta, M.D., Akron General Spine and Pain Institute.
What are the main findings of your research?
Our literature review showed that the active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, has promising potential to serve as an adjuvant treatment to treat inflammatory autoimmune conditions such as irritable bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
How did you develop an interest in your research topic?
I have always been interested in autoimmune conditions and exploring the modalities used across Ayurvedic medicine.
What is something unexpected you learned during this process?
This was my first literature review and I learned how thorough and intense the process can be.
Is there anything you would do differently if you could do it again?
No.
What advice would you give other students considering research?
Explore your passions. Even if you aren't able to get involved with wet lab research, try to explore other avenues of research such as literature reviews, meta-analyses, etc.
What advice would you give others about submitting an article for publication or dealing with peer review?
Be patient!