Warren Alpert Physician-Scientist MD/PhD and Advanced Training Program

Ege Gungor Onal is an MD-PhD student at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering with highest honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was selected as one of nine graduates to receive the 2022 Knight of St. Patrick Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Grainger College of Engineering.

Following graduation, Ege worked in Dr. Robert Langer’s laboratory at MIT, contributing to the development of an mRNA-based nanotherapy for solid tumors. His work earned recognition with the 2024 Koch Institute at MIT Biomedical Image Award for his super-resolution confocal microscopy image of mRNA-lipid nanoparticle delivered glioblastoma cells.

During his undergraduate studies, Ege gained extensive research experience in Dr. Brian Cunningham’s laboratory, where he helped develop a portable photonic resonator absorption microscope for detecting microRNA cancer signatures from blood samples. He completed two consecutive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) at the Mayo Clinic, where he worked with Dr. Venkatesh Bellamkonda and Dr. Michael Romero on both basic science and clinical research projects, earning distinction as an American Society of Nephrology Kidney STAR. During COVID-19, he published a research paper on the pandemic’s psychological and sociological impacts with sociologist Brian F. O’Neill, Ph.D. Ege’s bioengineering honors thesis in Dr. Andrew Smith’s laboratory focused on the metabolomic analysis of serum samples from castration-resistant prostate cancer patients. These efforts have culminated in multiple publications and conference presentations.

At Brown, Ege enjoys being involved in leadership and advocacy. He serves as the President of the Brown University Chapter of American Physician Scientist Association (APSA) and Co-President of student-led initiatives such as the Cancer Research Journal Club, Healer’s Art, and Regenerative Medicine Pre-Clinical Electives.