Randolph-Macon College Biology Professor Grace Lim-Fong and Rian Kabir ’16 are co-authors of a chapter in a book titled Chemical Ecology: The Ecological Impacts of Marine Natural Products. The chapter is titled Chemical Ecology of Marine Bryozoans.

Kabir, who majored in biology and minored in chemistry at RMC, is a third-year medical student at The Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine, where he earned early admission in conjunction with the Preferred Applicant Track between RMC and VCU.

SURFing Through Research
Kabir began researching bryozoans (a group of marine invertebrates) in 2015, when he participated in RMC’s Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. He presented that research at the 2015 Meeting of American Society for Microbiology.

For his SURF project, Kabir—the recipient of a Wornom Fellowship, a full tuition pre-med scholarship to RMC—mined research papers that described new molecules isolated from bryozoans.

“He read those papers carefully so that we could formulate a systematic understanding of how these molecules might mediate interactions between the bryozoan and its environment,” explains Lim-Fong.

One such molecule is bryostatin, which acts as a feeding deterrent, preventing the bryozoan larvae from being eaten by fish predators. Some of these bryozoan molecules have clinical relevance: bryostatin is currently being tested in clinical trials to evaluate its ability to decrease cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.

From RMC to Med School
Lim-Fong and Kabir met weekly and worked together in writing the book chapter, with Kabir contributing some text sections and making figures of all the chemical structures of the bryozoan molecules. Lim-Fong plans to assign the chapter to students in her Marine Biology course.

“It was an amazing experience to work through the scientific literature and translate it in a way a where a lay person could learn something new,” says Kabir. “And working with Professor Lim-Fong was a great experience. She gave me great guidance and mentorship.”

Kabir took advantage of all that RMC offers as he prepared for medical school. He did an internship at Richmond’s Memorial Regional Medical Center; studied abroad in Japan; and worked with staff from the EDGE, RMC’s career preparation program, to secure a job as an Emergency Department scribe.

“RMC gave me many opportunities that continue to pay dividends in my medical education and future career,” says Kabir, who hopes to match into a psychiatry residency after he graduates from medical school and completes an addiction medicine fellowship. “My plan is to work on the front lines of the opiate epidemic and help patients struggling with mental illness,” he says.