Eyes on the Prize

Photo provided by Nahrain Putris

When Nahrain Putris, M.D., CAS ’17 and OUWB ’21, applied to the Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research (SUPER), she didn't realize she was embarking on a trailblazing path for Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB) ophthalmology students.

Today, Dr. Putris is one of the first OU students to match into the highly competitive specialty of ophthalmology at Beaumont Hospital. When she first started at SUPER, a program of OU's Eye Research Institute (ERI), in 2014, she was a biochemistry major interested in expanding her experience in medicine and research. But her time at SUPER laid the foundation for her decision to pursue an ophthalmology specialty. She worked with OU faculty at SUPER on research focused on the pathophysiology of cataract formation.

"SUPER brought in clinicians I now work with at Beaumont, which is kind of crazy to think about," Putris says.

After completing a summer at SUPER, Putris stayed with the program as a mentor to other students. She says she knew ophthalmology was a competitive field, so she wasn't completely set on pursuing it when she started medical school. But Putris eventually realized she wanted to focus on ophthalmology because it offered "the best of both worlds."

"I could be in the hospital and also be a surgeon, so it encompassed everything I was looking for in a field," Putris says. "And also, eyeballs are really cool."

Putris chose to do her OUWB Embark capstone project on cellular signaling in retinal endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels of the retina. For that project, she worked with Kenneth Mitton, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the ERI. In 2020, Putris presented her Embark work at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's annual meeting, and in 2021 she won a Ravitz Foundation Embark Program Competitive Scholarship for a mini manuscript summarizing her project.

This outstanding track record positioned Putris for the highly coveted ophthalmology residency at Beaumont, her number-one pick. According to Dr. Mitton, only three ophthalmology residency spots are available at Beaumont per year, with about 40 applicants interviewing for them. Putris' past ophthalmology experience, pleasant chairside manner and excellent time management all make her an outstanding resident.

"It's very rewarding to go over [to Beaumont] and do my turn lecturing and see Nahrain there as one of the residents,” Mitton says. “To think that almost a decade ago, she was just another undergraduate student looking to get some lab experience and trying to figure out what she wanted to do. It's nice to see students when they get that far."

Putris says her experience at OU has been extremely influential in her career trajectory. She says OUWB faculty prepared her not just for the medical side of her residency but for interacting thoughtfully with patients.

Nahrain Putris in 2014 as an undergraduate student working with Frank Giblin in the Eye Research Institute

"I always say that if I can be half the physician of those I work with, then I've accomplished a lot in my life," she says. "So, I try to take pieces of their bedside manner, how they establish patient rapport, and then incorporate that into the way I care for patients today."

While Putris is unsure if she wants to continue her eye research — instead pursuing a future as a community ophthalmologist — she expresses deep gratitude for her experiences thus far.

"Research has taught me a lot of really good personal skills, discipline, patience and the art of what it takes to be a scientist," Putris says. "I try to take everything I've learned and implement it in some way."

Now poised to inspire the next generation of Beaumont residents, Putris is proud to be able to tell medical students who are interested in ophthalmology that it's "very much a tangible or reachable profession."