First-year medical student
Andrew Razzano was very close to his grandfather, Frank
Razzano. After developing Type 2 diabetes, the elder Razzano, a
World War II veteran, passed away from heart-related
complications resulting from his diabetes.
The death of his grandfather
set the younger Razzano on the path of medical research and
sparked his dream of becoming a doctor. As an undergraduate
majoring in biological sciences at Ohio University, he jumped at
the chance to work for John Kopchick, Ph.D., a principal
investigator at the Edison Biotechnology Institute. Kopchick
pioneered the discovery of the drug Somavert, a growth hormone
receptor antagonist that eventually may also prove effective
against diabetes. He and other Edison principal investigators
are currently engaged in researching cures for diabetes.
Because of that chance, in
2004, near the end of his junior year, Razzano became an AMVETS
scholar — as Kopchick refers to the undergraduate research
position, says Razzano. AMVETS scholars are funded by AMVETS,
one of America’s foremost veterans service and are made possible
by the organization’s Diabetes Institute Training Award, which
AMVETS began three years ago. AMVETS — including Athens Post 76,
Logan Post 1776, and national and district posts — has raised
more than $50,000 to fund undergraduate research at Edison.
Razzano was eligible for the award because his grandfather and
others in his family served in the military.
At first, says Razzano, he had
to “learn lab protocols and read a lot of research-related
articles. Then I was able to start doing DNA isolation, worked
on an aging study and eventually designed my own study.
“The research I did at Edison
dealt with the vascular inflammation associated with Type 2
diabetes. It truly meant a lot to me because diabetes has
affected my family, like so many others. Unlike most of those
affected, I have had the opportunity to make a difference in
this area,” Razzano says. He graduated with a bachelor in
biological science/pre-medicine. He also spent a summer in
OU-COM’s undergraduate research program.
At Kopchick’s lab, he says,
“You are treated as a lab technician. You are involved in the
weekly meetings. You have to be on your toes. John expects a lot
from us.”
And that’s good, says Razzano.
“It’s great because you are
working in a business-oriented, drug-producing laboratory. You
get to see firsthand the process from beginning to end — from
the inception of the approach to envisioning the end goal.”
Bill Butcher, a member of local
Post 76, says AMVETS saw the need to assist this community, one
affected by the prevalence of diabetes, by supporting diabetes
research.
“This was a major push for our
organization,” says Butcher.
Butcher discussed with
Kopchick, a personal friend, how AMVETS could best help diabetes
research efforts underway at Edison. After the details were
worked out, the Diabetes Institute Training Award was founded.
The National AMVETS has donated
$15,000 each year for the Diabetes Institute Training Award.
Locally, AMVETS posts
have donated $2,000 each year to fund the award.
“For Bill and AMVETS to fund
this program for undergraduates says a lot about the commitment
they have to help our community and support students who are
seeking to make a difference,” says Kopchick.
The award program is open to
Ohio undergraduates and was designed to give students a peek
into the research side of medicine, Kopchick says.
“They not only learn how to do
diabetes research, in the process they make new discoveries.
It’s our hope that some of these discoveries will lead to new
therapeutics for the treatment of diabetic patients. It’s a very
good research-oriented program.”
Two other Ohio graduates have
also been AMVETS scholars, Megan Buchholtz and Stephanie Keeton.
Currently there are four students training at Edison through the
AMVETS program: Andrew Dittenhoffer, Josh Harbert, Kerri Bauske
and Frank Hartge, an Iraqi war veteran.
Like Razzano, for students to
qualify for the award they must have a veteran in the family or
be one themselves. The award helps pay their salaries as well as
for research supplies and travel expenses. In 2005, Razzano
traveled with fellow AMVETS scholars to present at the Annual
Endocrinology Society Meeting in San Diego.
He says the experience he had
at Edison was amazing.
“I received top notch research
experience and participated in a great work environment,” he
says. “To be part of a research effort that has produced
numerous intellectual patents and has a drug on the market right
now — Somavert — allowed me to see how much work goes into
researching diseases. I saw how researchers can target a
disorder and produce a drug to fix it.
“All the great experiences I
have had would not have been possible with out the support and
encouragement of AMVETS. The organization took a great interest
not only in my research but also in me as a person.
“AMVETS wanted to know what we
were doing — they would come by the laboratory and talk with us
about what we did. I’ve also been to the post a few times. They
would honor us at post meetings and would give us a chance to
talk about our research. It was a great opportunity.”
“It’s wonderful,” says
Kopchick, “to see the look on students’ faces when I tell them
that they are the recipients of the AMVETS Diabetes Institute
Training Award.”
- 30 -
News for
the week of
Feb 27 – March 3
