Winning the largest research competition for medical students, residents, fellows and international medical graduates will earn plenty of prestige—and a $10,000 grand prize to boot. Taking place Feb. 20, 2025, at 2 p.m. CST, the AMA Research Challenge Finals, the event will be livestreamed and showcase the work of four medical students and one fellow. RSVP now to watch.
Ahead of the big finale, here are a few things to know about the event and the finalists’ outstanding scholarly work.
The road to the finals
This year’s AMA Research Challenge, like the several that preceded it, has once again generated incredible interest, enthusiasm and participation.
The field of competitors started with a record 1,330 abstract submissions, with participants coming from 188 institutions. Abstracts fit into one of six categories:
- Clinical and translational research.
- Clinical vignettes.
- Public health and health policy.
- Medical education.
- Basic science.
- Health systems science.
Of those initial abstracts, 939 were selected for presentation in a virtual poster symposium. The 40 top-scored posters then advanced to the semifinals, where judges and AMA members scored them. The five finalists emerged from that group.
For medical students looking to hone their research skills, the AMA offers resources and programs that bring you from the basics all the way to the AMA Research Challenge where you too can compete for a $10,000 prize.
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Who are the finalists?
A field of four current medical students and one fellow will compete for the event’s grand prize.
Here is some information about the contestants, each of whom is an AMA member.
Aditya Kotla, medical student, Carver College of Medicine—The University of Iowa
Poster: “A Survey on Disabilities and Disability Awareness in General Surgery Residents in the US” (PDF)
Topic: Medical education
Ayush Kumar, medical student, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Poster: “Enhancing the Radiosensitivity of Triple-negative Breast Cancer by Targeting VEGF/Neuropilin-2” (PDF)
Topic: Basic science
Darwin Kwok, medical student, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Poster: “ Tumor-wide RNA Splicing Aberrations Generate Immunogenic Public Neoantigens Across Cancers” (PDF)
Topic: Basic science
Ashley Newsholme, medical student, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Poster: “Major Adverse Cardiovascular and Limb Events Post Tibial vs Femoropopliteal Angioplasty” (PDF)
Topic: Basic science
Phoebe Yu, sleep medicine/otolaryngology fellow, University of Pennsylvania
Poster: “Upper Airway Stimulation for Adolescents with Down Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea” (PDF)
Topic: Clinical and transitional research
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What are judges looking for?
The panel of three expert judges includes Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, editor-in-chief of JAMA® and The JAMA Network; Frederick Chen, MD, MPH, the AMA’s chief health and science officer; and Sanjay Desai, MD, chief academic officer for the AMA.
In highlighting the work of past winners, judges have awarded projects that show clinical relevance and an easy to follow narrative. The mechanics of presenting require clear visuals and an engaging script.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo has consistently been impressed by the caliber of the competition in the AMA Research Challenge.
“One of the things that's really impressive in all of this is that we're asking people really early on in their careers to have a strong clinical insight, but also to think like a scientist—and then to be an exceptional communicator, right, to be able to tell us, this is the broad question we're interested in,” she said in 2023. “This is the clinical context. But then here are the things that this specific experiment was able to tell us and what it wasn't able to tell us.”
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- AMA Research Challenge: How to prepare a research poster
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Which projects have won in past years?
Looking at the past winners may shed some insight on the favorites for this year’s event.
In 2023, Jesse Kirkpatrick, a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, won the Research Challenge for his poster on the detection of cholangiocarcinoma—a rare bile duct cancer that is among the deadliest forms of cancer.
In 2022, Leelabati “Leela” Biswas, an MD-PhD candidate at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, won the $10,000 grand prize for her research examining potential genetic biomarkers of infertility.
In 2021, Marielisa Cabrera-Sánchez, a medical student at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, took home the top spot for her research on Moraxella catarrhalis—an upper respiratory bacterium that exacerbates chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The call for abstracts has opened for the 2025 AMA Research Challenge. Enter for the chance to showcase your research, bolster your CV and win a $10,000 grand prize presented by Laurel Road. The abstract submission deadline is July 16, 2025.
