Vishal John

I'm Vishal John, a third-year medical student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. My interest in medicine is rooted in years of hands-on research — most notably at the Koschmann Lab at the University of Michigan, where I worked as a Clinical Research Technician studying pediatric brain cancer. There, I co-authored publications on liquid biopsy techniques, presented first-author research at the BioInnovation in Brain Cancer Symposium, and developed methods for simulating the tumor microenvironment using stem cell-derived organoids.

Before medical school, I served as Project Lead at miRcore, a nonprofit dedicated to democratizing STEM education through bioinformatics training and the Citizen Scientist Sequencing Initiative — an effort to give students direct ownership of their own genomic data. At UofL, I lead the Oncology Interest Group and worked on a cardiothoracic surgery device team through Bluegrass Biodesign.

My commitment to medicine extends beyond the laboratory. I serve on the board of Rock Cancer, a program providing free rock climbing experiences to young patients with cancer, and from 2021 to 2024 I volunteered at Saint Andrew's Breakfast Program in Ann Arbor, which provides meals and essential services to the city's unhoused population.

I believe that becoming a good physician requires equal parts scientific rigor and genuine investment in people — and I try to bring both to everything I do.