For ten weeks every summer, a small and passionate group of undergraduate students from the St. Louis metro area embarks on a transformative journey. The Accessible Summer Research (ASSURE) Fellowship, hosted by the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, is more than just a research program—it’s a launchpad for students with diverse aspirations, providing them with the mentorship, skills, and experiences to excel in medicine, research, and beyond.
Now in its fifth year, the ASSURE Fellowship has become synonymous with possibility. It provides a space where students engage in cutting-edge research spanning basic, clinical, and translational science, while discovering their future paths under the guidance of WashU Medicine’s distinguished faculty and staff. The program also fosters a vibrant community, offering educational workshops, social events, clinical shadowing days, and opportunities to present their work to colleagues. But the true power of ASSURE lies in its ripple effects. Alumni carry the invaluable lessons they’ve learned and use them to make a lasting impact. Their journeys exemplify the fellowship’s ability to inspire ambition, spark curiosity, and encourage a dedication to making a difference.
What sets the ASSURE Fellowship apart is its emphasis on personalized mentorship and collaborative learning. Each fellow is paired with a WashU Medicine faculty member and a bench mentor, gaining hands-on experience in research while developing the skills to translate scientific inquiry into meaningful outcomes. Workshops, networking events, and career guidance ensure that fellows leave with both technical expertise and a professional network to support them beyond the program.
One such example is Charlotte Bulenda, who joined ASSURE’s inaugural cohort in 2021 as a fellow in the Haroutounian Lab alongside Summer Scholar Preston Boyd. Bulenda and Boyd spent their time working on the Personalized Prediction of Persistent Post-Surgical Pain (P5) Project, which would later be picked up by 2022 ASSURE Fellow, Joel Hanns. These three spent their respective summers working on research projects surrounding pain, such as the link between sleep quality and persistent postsurgical pain. For Bulenda and Hanns, this project transferred into a full-time position as Clinical Research Coordinators after graduation, allowing them to continue their work together – and also serve as bench mentors for the next cohort of ASSURE Fellows.
In 2024, Bulenda earned her Bachelor of Nursing from Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College. She now works as a nurse at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and plans to enroll in a nurse anesthesia program to pursue her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).
For Boyd and Hanns, their experience in ASSURE served as a stepping stone toward medical school. In 2024, Boyd began his studies at Harvard Medical School. Hanns, who will begin medical school in fall 2025, reflects on the program’s lasting impact: “I’ll always be grateful for the way ASSURE prepared me—academically, personally, and professionally,” Hanns says. “I’ve been fortunate to receive offers from several medical schools, including WashU Medicine. While I haven’t yet decided where I’ll attend, WashU will always feel like home.”
The ripple effects of ASSURE extend beyond individual careers to the broader field of medicine. For Chloe Thomas, a 2023 fellow, the fellowship provided a platform to explore hepatobiliary diseases. Working in the Njoku Lab, she published her findings on sex differences in drug-induced liver conditions in Frontiers in Medicine. Now in her senior year at Saint Louis University, Thomas credits ASSURE for inspiring her to pursue postgraduate studies in clinical neuroscience, where she hopes to make a lasting impact as a clinical psychologist. “ASSURE gave me the tools to translate curiosity into discovery,” Chloe says.
ASSURE gave me the tools to translate curiosity into discovery
Chloe Thomas, 2023 ASSURE Fellow
For Sofía Angulo-Lopera, another member of the 2023 cohort, the fellowship solidified her decision to pursue a career blending clinical care and translational research. Working in the Moron-Concepcion Lab, she investigated the mechanisms of opioid-induced respiratory depression. After graduating from WashU in May 2024 with a degree in comparative literature and cognitive neuroscience, she entered WashU Medicine’s Neurosciences graduate PhD program.
Other alumni are making their marks at national conferences. In 2024, ASSURE Fellows Tiana Ford and Elsa Mulat collaborated on research in the Ablordeppey Lab that will be presented at the 2025 Critical Care Congress. Their work—focused on improving ultrasound guidance in the ICU—has the potential to transform how critical care teams approach central venous catheterization.
The ASSURE Fellowship’s greatest legacy may be its community. Fellows often stay connected, supporting each other’s journeys long after their summer at WashU Medicine, and their collective accomplishments highlight the program’s far-reaching influence. Reflecting on these successes, the Executive Director of ASSURE, Robert Gereau, PhD, explained, “The success of ASSURE lies not only in the achievements of our alumni but also in the opportunities it provides. For many students from the St. Louis metro area, this fellowship is their first chance to engage in basic, clinical, or translational research, or have access to opportunities in clinical shadowing. Watching them seize that opportunity and go on to shape the future of medicine is what makes this program so special.”