The Graduate Forum
an interdisciplinary forum at New York University
Kurt Wong
Kurt is a PhD student in the Department of Medical Parasitology at the NYU School of Medicine. He has held an avid interest in malaria and its interactions with the immune system ever since his undergrad years at the University of Toronto. Presently under the supervision of Ana Rodriguez, he is studying how the immune system seeks to regulate harmful inflammation that occurs during malaria. Using a mouse infection model, he has identified a subset of innate immune cells, termed regulatory dendritic cells, that emerge during an acute infection and interact with T cells in order to dampen inflammation. He hopes that a better understanding of these dendritic cells will allow for the development of clinical interventions that could prevent malaria from killing people as a result of its fatal inflammatory processes.
Kurt's Reflections on the Forum
The Graduate Forum is so much more than discussing thesis projects. In fact, these thesis-related discussions merely acted as fronts for what was a form of cultural exchange. With each new presentation by a member from a completely different study, we found ourselves completely engrossed in exchanging details about the cultures of different academic disciplines and departments. As a result, I found that I came away from each session with a much greater understanding not only of the individual thesis topic, but also about the universal epistemological struggle, the universal graduate student struggle, and the different academic approaches taken by each discipline. It was such a delight to interact with and be taught by these people.