Sheream Reed

The movie Jaws may have frightened the average six-year old, but for Sheream James Reed, it forever instilled a fascination about teeth and nature. His mother, a dental assistant, further fueled his curiosity for dental medicine as he gradually began to recognize the importance of oral health. On the journey to becoming a well-rounded dental applicant and future dental practitioner, he acquired experience and accolades stemming from academic, clinical, and pharmaceutical research settings. Sheream is an entry level scientist and Biomedical Masters student at the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM). He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and achieved a bachelors degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. Sheream was competitively selected for a summer research internship at the Magee Womens Research Institute (Pittsburgh, PA) after his sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh in 2006. His lasting contribution to the NIA Intervention study earned him the Certificate of Excellence for an outstanding performance while researching Middle School African American Girls: What is their Reproductive Health Knowledge Base?, under the direction of Dr. Willa Doswell. Meanwhile, Sheream accepted an undergraduate research position at University of Pittsburghs Protein Quality Control Lab, where he collaborated with Dr. Jeffrey Brodsky innovating treatment methods for cystic fibrosis by attempting to enhance molecular chaperone function in HLJ1, a homolog of mammalian co-chaperone DnaJ/ heat shock protein 40 (HSP40). In 2010, Sheream accepted a Pharmacy Sterile Products Lab Tech position at Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia, PA) where he acquired four years of clinical pharmacy experience making intravenous medications in clean-room laminar hoods of the pharmacy intensive care unit. In 2015, he partook in a 6 month collaboration at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Computational and Systems Biology Department with post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Emile Furbee. Sheream's research focused on the mechanism and nuclear localization patterns of HSP27 in stressed Drosophila Schneider 2 cells. Phosphorylated Hsp27 is known to increase human prostate cancer (PCa) cell invasion, enhance cell proliferation, and suppress Fas-induced apoptosis in human PCa cells. Sheream returned home to Philadelphia in 2016 and accepted an Evotec Compound Management Lab position in the Medicinal Chemistry Department at Merck & Co. Meanwhile, he enrolled into the Geisingers Masters of Biomedical Sciences Program at the Blumberg Institute Hepatitis B Foundation, where he is performing research on the Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAG). After leaving the Compound Management lab, Sheream went on to help train surgeons with cadavers for Science Care Inc. before accepting a Scientific Process Operator position at Merck & Co. Even though Sheream is professionally and academically active, he still finds time to give back to his school and community by orchestrating food / blood drives with classmates and serving on the Board of Directors for Maximus Cares Foundation non-profit organization, which inspire young inner-city students to become the nations future scientists, engineers and medical practitioners.