Lincoln Scholarship leads international student to prestigious Mt. Sinai internship

Support from the Centre College Lincoln Scholars Program has helped Ward “Rudy” Alafef fulfill his college and career dreams.

A native of Swaida, Syria, the rising junior has worked in a prestigious program at the Mt. Sinai Hospital System in New York City, an exclusive opportunity that allows him to pursue various avenues of research and apply early for the hospital’s Ph.D. program.

“Because it’s a hospital and an academic campus, you get to see science translate to improving patient lives,” Alafef said. “If you’re pursuing any kind of pre-med or research experience, you get to interact with so many physicians and scientists.”

At Mt. Sinai, Alafef works in a computational lab, where his day-to-day duties primarily consist of biological computational analyses. He’s in the lab with a post-doctoral student and a Ph. D. student, working on a machine-learning model capable of classifying and predicting primary immunodeficiency genes.

“The goal is, if you provide the model with enough information about genomic annotation, it would be able to predict if a person is prone to or vulnerable to having an issue or disease,” he said.

Alafef emphasized the importance of “personalized medicine.” His interest in computational biology — which he described as a niche but growing field — comes from his family tree.

“Bioinformatics has the ability to transform medicine, it’s the ability to create treatments or therapies specific to an individual's body and genome so you can avoid side effects or complications,” Alafef said. “That relates very much to my grandma (with) whom I grew up. She was very allergic to anesthetics and didn’t know for a long time in her life.”

It’s his way of helping people — finding out how to read someone’s genome to understand optimal individual care. It can be a game-changer for low-income or rural populations as well, Alafef said.

“It can make medicine accessible to communities that are vulnerable to certain diseases,” he said. “We’re trying to incorporate as much data from as diverse of a population as possible to help our understanding of diseases and see what populations or underserved communities are facing in the health sector.”

Alafef’s internship is through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program for Underserved Scholars (SURP4US), which allowed him to work with the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine in the Mt. Sinai Hospital System in New York City.

Part of why Alafef wanted to go to New York City was for connections, both academically and socially. He said the Lincoln Scholars Program at Centre has already helped immensely in both areas.

Those connections include his professors — he’s a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) and data science — who have been instrumental in his journey.

“I really, really like my professors at Centre, and I have such a good relationship with them,” he said. “They provided me with letters of recommendation, helped me through my applications and guided me through the whole process, and they’re supporting me now in my Ph.D. application.”

The internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital is challenging, to say the least, but Alafef has a history of overcoming obstacles.  Last summer, he completed a backpacking program in the Alaskan wilderness as a part of the Lincoln Scholars Program summer enrichment experiences.

“The premise of the Lincoln Scholars Program is to challenge yourself, build yourself up in so many different ways,” he said. “After graduating, you’re able to incorporate yourself into society as a leader to advocate for change and to have a positive influence on society.”