Barry McNamara  |  Published August 31, 2016

Prestigious research

Day continues M.D.-Ph.D. career journey at Mayo Clinic
Saxon Day '18
Saxon Day ’18
Individuals needing a doctor about a decade from now would be wise to keep the name Saxon Day in mind.

Halfway through his Monmouth College career, the junior from Cupertino, Calif., has already made a name for himself. A member of the Fighting Scots tennis team, Day received the Midwest Conference’s prestigious Elite 20 Award for having the top GPA among all student-athletes competing at this year’s league meet.

Day then headed to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic for a summer research program, which included presenting his research one-on-one with Nobel Prize-winning physician Peter Agre.

“That was definitely a highlight of my time at Mayo,” said Day, whose research at the clinic’s department of urology and nephrology focused on kidney stone recurrence. He also received radiology training, which helps define the region of the kidney in which the stone is located.

“The research is trying to discover predictors for kidney stone recurrence in the general population,” he said. “We were looking for different characteristics of kidney stones and how they can predict kidney stones in the future.”

Once fully collected, clinicians will be able to use the information to better treat patients, Day said.

“This type of research had been done in small samples with more narrow demographics, but Mayo Clinic provided access to thousands of patient records,” Day said.

He said that makes findings “much more accurate and comprehensive in scope.”

“Since the program was only 10 weeks, I didn’t get to this part, but where the research is heading is toward a clinical device that physicians can use. That hasn’t really been done yet,” he said.

But Day said the research has revealed some interesting findings.

“Individuals with larger kidney stones at the time of the event and with more numerous kidney stones are more likely in future to develop kidney stones,” he said. “Also, if the composition was uric acid, they are also more likely to develop kidney stones in the future.”

Day said he benefited not only from his project, but by being able to work with Mayo Clinic nurses and doctors, as well as research students, who attended Day’s program from such schools as Harvard, Yale and Vanderbilt.
“This research was very applicable to my goal of becoming an M.D./Ph.D.,” he said. “That involves being a practicing clinician while also doing research, bridging the gap between research and implementing that research into a clinical setting.”
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