{"id":92721,"date":"2025-05-15T04:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T08:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=92721"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:36:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:36:37","slug":"future-physician-scientist-finds-opportunity-support-at-utoledo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/05_15_2025\/future-physician-scientist-finds-opportunity-support-at-utoledo","title":{"rendered":"Future Physician-Scientist Finds Opportunity, Support at UToledo"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Nicholas Henkel, getting involved in research as an undergraduate zoology student was borne not so much out of enthusiasm for the lab as it was carefully thinking about his next step.<\/p>\n

Getting into medical school was the goal, and having research experience would help with his application.<\/p>\n

\"Graduation

CELEBRATING SUCCESS:<\/strong> UToledo recognizes the Class of 2025 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at spring commencement<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re checking off a box. Even if you didn\u2019t like research, you gave it the good old college try,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows that you were familiar with the scientific process, because that\u2019s what medicine is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Far from not liking it, though, Henkel was enthralled by the work he was doing in neuroscience.<\/p>\n

That led to some uncomfortable questions. Did he give up on medicine to become a scientific researcher? Did he ignore the passion research had ignited and stay the course with medicine?<\/p>\n

A research internship at the University of Utah between his junior and senior year of college, however, opened his eyes to a third possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentor was an M.D.\/Ph.D. I really loved how he practiced medicine and how he approached clinical problems,\u201d Henkel said. \u201cHe could take clinical questions and was applying them directly in his lab. I thought that was the most amazing thing, and I thought maybe it was something I could do too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henkel found that opportunity at The University of Toledo, which offers a joint M.D.\/Ph.D. program<\/a> through the College of Medicine and Life Sciences.<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati native completed his doctoral work at UToledo in 2023 and is set to graduate with his medical degree on Friday, May 16, eight years after he enrolled in the College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unquestionably been a long journey, but his efforts have more than paid off.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Henkel will depart Toledo for a yearlong internal medicine internship with Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by three years of neurology training at the University of California San Francisco, two of the country\u2019s best residency training programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for the experience that I\u2019ve had at Toledo. There is a lot of opportunity here,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the things I have done and been able to see is special. I think there\u2019s a really nice blend of pure clinical medicine and academic components too. I\u2019ve had great mentors here and I\u2019ve been supported all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those mentors was Dr. Coral Matus, an associate professor and associate dean for clinical undergraduate medical education in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, who worked closely with Henkel both in clinical rotations and when he served as the lead chair of the\u00a0Independent Student Analysis Committee during the college\u2019s most recent LCME accreditation, which was granted in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick is one of those students who truly has made the most of every opportunity,\u201d Matus said. \u201cHe is so well-prepared both as a clinician and a researcher, and he has really seen the ins and outs of medical education. He is kind, compassionate and very bright, and his patients adore him. His experience is going to set him up for anything he wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Portrait

Nicholas Henkel, who already earned a Ph.D. from UToledo, will graduate with his medical degree on May 16 and begin a prestigious residency in neurology.<\/p><\/div>\n

Henkel\u2019s path toward medicine \u2014 and neurology in particular \u2014 was first inspired by his experience as an infant. Born with a rare intracranial dermoid cyst that had to be removed when he was 6 months old, Henkel spent the first several years of his childhood spiking unidentified fevers that often sent him to the hospital.<\/p>\n

As he grew older, he knew he wanted to do something so he could help others similar to how he had been helped. High school introduced him to biology, a love of which slowly manifested into his pursuit of medicine.<\/p>\n

Henkel\u2019s specific interest in neurology and Alzheimer\u2019s dementia also has been inspired in part by what he\u2019s seen in his own family. During his time at UToledo, all three of his living grandparents succumbed to dementia, including two from Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Much of Henkel\u2019s own research at UToledo has been focused on finding new ways to treat that disease.<\/p>\n

Henkel\u2019s work, coming under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Smith, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosciences and Psychiatry, has resulted in several important publications and led to him receiving a highly competitive F30 fellowship grant from the National Institute on Aging in 2022.<\/p>\n

His research also formed a significant basis of the background work that helped UToledo secure a major, $3.7 million research grant from the National Institute on Aging in 2024 for a new study that casts aside previous assumptions about Alzheimer\u2019s and takes a clean-slate approach to understanding the origins of the disease.<\/p>\n

The work, which is being led by Smith, ultimately aims to identify targets for new drugs that can block the progression of cognitive impairment seen in Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is a very important goal to extend our understanding of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer\u2019s dementia, perhaps a bigger and more important goal is training the next generation of physician-scientists that can blaze the trail to help the afflicted with brain disorders,\u201d Smith said. \u201cNick is well on his way to being a top leader in his chosen field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henkel said he hopes to eventually work in academic medicine where he can contribute directly to both clinical care and cutting-edge medical research. In the meantime, he\u2019s eager to continue his training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really rigorous and really challenging four years, but I\u2019m looking forward to learning, finding clinical independence and using my clinical interests inform the research work that will come from it,\u201d he said. \u201cI love what I do. I can\u2019t wait to see what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Portrait<\/a>

Nicholas Henkel, who already earned a Ph.D. from UToledo, will graduate with his medical degree on May 16 and begin a prestigious residency in neurology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":92722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,69,38,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92721"}],"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=92721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92724,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92721\/revisions\/92724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}