![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Su-and-conductor.jpg\")
<\/a>Robin Su posed for a photo with Nancia D\u2019Alimonte, music director of the National Institutes of Health Philharmonia, in Washington.<\/p><\/div>\u201cI was always interested in music and medicine,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I got older and looked at the different possibilities of pursing both, I think that became more realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Su was one of just three students accepted into UT\u2019s joint MD\/PhD Program in fall 2015. His current research is focused on how microcystin, a dangerous toxin produced by algal blooms, might affect individuals with pre-existing conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.<\/p>\n
He is working to find biomarkers that could help clinicians diagnose microcystin-induced liver damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to be at the front end and have preventative measures and diagnostic measures to prevent it from progressing further,\u201d Su said. \u201cLiver disease is a progressive disease from multiple hits, and we think that microcystin definitely plays into that and accelerates that process. We\u2019re trying to prevent that from moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a professional musician, Su would dedicate eight hours a day to practice. That\u2019s been significantly scaled back as he juggles his course load and laboratory work. Even so, Su managed to cram in four hours of practice every night in the weeks prior to the August performances.<\/p>\n
Once together in Washington, the group went through three days of grueling eight-hour rehearsals. As concertmaster, Su took on many added responsibilities, including the execution of several solo passages, acting as a liaison between the conductor and orchestra to facilitate musical communication, and serving as a leader of the entire orchestra to ensure musical unity.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no small task when you\u2019re talking about an organization in the World Doctors Orchestra that draws from a rotating cast of more than 1,200 physicians from nearly 50 countries. Combine that with integrating musicians from the NIH Philharmonia, and it\u2019s downright challenging. <\/p>\n
\u201cNormal orchestras rehearse throughout the year and we only have three days,\u201d Su said. \u201cI think everyone was very appreciative of my strong leadership of the orchestra, and I think it played a role in bringing everything together very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
His work won high praise from Sheyna Burt, president of the World Doctors Orchestra USA. There\u2019s a bit of a clich\u00e9, Burt said, of a hard-charging physician by day and a dedicated amateur performer by night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith Robin it\u2019s different. Whatever his academic prowess might be, he is a genuinely gifted and sensitive artist,\u201d she said. \u201cDuring the first rehearsal of the World Doctors Orchestra\/NIH Philharmonia collaboration, I witnessed his interpretation of the opening violin solo in Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s \u2018Russian Easter Overture\u2019 stop an entire orchestra in its tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Su, who is about halfway through his dual degree program, eventually wants to actively practice medicine along with conducting academic research.<\/p>\n
And he hopes to continue playing violin, encouraged by the world-class doctors and researchers with whom he recently performed. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely inspirational for me, seeing that physicians can still balance their work with their musical passion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robin Su, a fourth-year MD\/PhD student at the University and violinist, was the first chair for two recent performances by the World Doctors Orchestra and the National Institutes of Health Philharmonia in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,38,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51359"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53323,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359\/revisions\/53323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Su-playing.jpg\")
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