A second-year student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine is about to embark on the chance of a lifetime after being accepted into a year-long fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program.

Esmaeel Reza Dadashzadeh, 23, and originally from Wichita, Kan., will begin his fellowship in July with 41 other students selected from the nation's medical schools.

Also known as the Cloister Program, the fellowship was established in 1985 to give outstanding students at U.S. medical schools the opportunity to receive research training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The program accepts students who are interested in receiving elite research training and who have demonstrated an interest in pursuing a research-driven career. The fellowship offers a year-long immersion research experience at the National Institutes of Health, sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Students live, conduct research and attend lectures at the NIH campus.

The first month in the program students rotate among labs they find attractive, and then spend the year working with a principal investigator at a lab of their choosing.

"I am very interested in spending my year in the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program," Dadashzadeh said. "This would be an ideal balance of patient interaction and research. The goal would be to help diagnose new and rare diseases, which would provide closure, and to also take the next step of researching potential treatments, which would provide life."

Dadashzadeh, who performed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry and Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan, said he remains undecided about which field of medicine to practice. However, he has "always been excited" about serving with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). Working with that organization, he said, would not leave him "feeling so hopeless when I watch the grim news of the tragedies and humanitarian crimes that occur around the world."

Although he will take a year off from medical school for the research program, Dadashzadeh said he still sees himself entering a medical residency and becoming a physician-scientist, with greater emphasis on clinical work.

"I feel so fortunate to be here (WSU)," he said. "The clinical training at WSU is truly something else. When I compare my comfort level with seeing patients compared to my friends who are spread throughout the country in other medical schools, it is clear that hands down Wayne State has trained us the best. Also, I have been so fortunate to be a part of the Robert R. Frank Student Run Free Clinic, which has made my experience here all the more satisfying. Pairing this clinical experience with the research experience I will attain at the NIH next year is a perfect combination."