Adit Singhal of Ashburn, medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, lead author of research published in Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

2018 Feb 14

Adit Singhal of Ashburn, a second-year medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, was the lead author of research published Feb. 7 in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. The article was entitled "Regulation of insulin resistance and type II diabetes by hepatitis C virus infection: A driver function of circulating miRNAs."

Under Dr. Ling's direction and supervision, Mr. Singhal conducted the research with bioinformatics analysis. The results suggest that small non-coding RNA molecules (miRNAs) found in the blood circulation following Hepatitis C infection may lead to extrahepatic metabolic consequences such as insulin resistance and diabetes. "This result, along with the idea about the driver function of circulating miRNAs, will promote further investigations that eventually lead to the development of novel strategies to treat HCV infection-associated extrahepatic comorbidities," the co-authors wrote.

Mr. Singhal hopes to pursue a career in oncology when he graduates from Geisinger Commonwealth in 2020.