IN THE LAB:  Public health graduate student Vivien Lee (Environmental Health Sciences) leads the visiting students in an experiment to provide an introduction to parasitology and microscope techniques.

A group of 10 medical students from Saudi Arabia participated in the new Undergraduate Research Program through the Global Health Institute at the University of Arizona’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in collaboration with the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix and Biomedical Sciences.

The program was designed to introduce the third year medical students from the College of Medicine at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, to the public health system in the U.S. through practical hands-on experiences in the lab and biomedical and public health research.

The College of Medicine at Al-Imam University is the only college of medicine in Saudi Arabia to have a separate Department of Public Health.

UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE:  Students were able to enjoy a little R&R in the evenings and on weekends in between their studies and research. Faisal Aloufi said the most memorable moment of his trip to Arizona was seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. Abdul Aziz Alkahtani, who served as the unofficial photographer for the group, enjoyed a different movie every night at a local theatre near their hotel in Phoenix. (L to R) Front: Professors Janet Foote and Cecilia Rosales, Amad Alrubaian, Faisal Aloufi. Second row: Abdullatif Alkhurayji, Abdulrahman Hatem Aman, Fahad Saud Alotaibi, Khaled Hamid Alaybaa, Dhaifallah Sultan Mulafikh, Abdulrahman Mohammed Aljuayli, Abdul Aziz Alkahtani.

Each student was matched with a faculty member from the College of Public Health and the College of Medicine for one-on-one instruction. Lab experiments provided students with hands-on experience in basic research to understand disease mechanisms, learning about disease biomarkers such as gene sequencing, and innovative therapeutic approaches.“We are a new medical college and the plan from the beginning was to involve our students in research,” said Sami Aldaham, MD, director of Students International Program, at the College of Medicine, Al-Imam University. “We decided early on to send our students to different universities around the world and expose them to other schools of medicine and other cultures.”“It was a joy to interact with students eager to learn not only the academic material, but enthusiastic about Arizona, its people, its diverse cultures and where the parallels intersected with their own country and culture,” said Cecilia Rosales, MD, MS, director of Phoenix Programs at the Zuckerman College of Public Health.

As faculty and students grew to know each other over the course of the month and cultivated trust, the conversations ventured beyond the academic discourse to a more familiar exchange of ideas, said Dr. Rosales. “It’s fascinating how quickly you develop relationships, find common ground, and bond with people regardless of where they live in the world.”

“This is the beginning of a new partnership between the University of Arizona and Al-Imam University. In the future, we will offer faculty training and joint research. Our mission is a globally trained, interprofessional workforce,” said Dr. Iman Hakim, professor and dean of the Zuckerman College of Public Health and founder of the GHI.

For information about the next Graduate Research Program scheduled in the Summer 2012, please contact Dr. Cecilia Rosales at (602) 827-2205 or crosales@email.arizona.edu.