April 14, 2023 — College of Medicine alumna Lauren Reoma, M.D. ’11, was recently recognized as a member of the 2023 cohort of the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 honorees. The distinction recognizes achievements by alumni who are “going greater” in their communities and professions.

Reoma is the deputy clinical director and the director of the Clinical Trials Unit at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, or NINDS. In her role, Reoma assists the clinical director in support of the clinical program within intramural NINDS. Through the Clinical Trials Unit, she oversees the administration of NINDS intramural science review, protocol staffing and support, clinical research education and training, biostatistics, investigational pharmacy, quality assurance, monitoring and auditing, data and clinical trials database management, data and safety monitoring, and regulatory support. Reoma is the Sponsor’s Authorized Representative for intramural NINDS-sponsored Investigational New Drug and Investigational Device exemption Clinical trials, oversees the NINDS central Data and Safety Monitoring Board, and also serves as the medical monitor for selected NINDS-sponsored trials.

Early in her career, Reoma was torn between completing a doctorate program in organic chemistry and going to medical school after her experience working in a synthetic organic chemistry lab during her undergraduate studies. While in a post-baccalaureate research stint, she joined a neurodevelopmental lab and had the opportunity to travel to a remote portion of Saskatchewan, Canada, to collaborate with a native tribe as part of a gene-discovery effort and had the opportunity to connect and work with a community impacted by a hereditary disorder.

“It was so nice to be able to interact with people and try to solve their problems,” she said. “And while I could also do that in the lab, I realized that I really preferred working with people. That’s what ultimately led me to go the M.D. route.”

Upon receiving her medical degree, Reoma completed an internal medicine internship and her neurology residency at UF before training as a clinical fellow in the NINDS neuroimmunology and neurovirology program, where she completed additional training in clinical trials methodology and with the Food and Drug Administration. She is also currently finishing up an NIH-Duke master’s program in clinical research.

Today, Reoma puts the skills she learned during her training at UF to work at the NIH by overseeing FDA-regulated trials and supporting more than 120 clinical trials within the NINDS intramural program annually.

“It’s been really rewarding,” she said. “And it has led to an ability to look at a trial’s framework, including different designs, methodologies and ways you can better ensure safety and efficiency in your trial program. That’s what I really like. Clinical trials are like a whole new world that open up to you. You have a clinical medicine goal, and then you have an operational framework where you learn how to implement that goal.”

Reoma said she was surprised to learn about her status as a 40 Under 40 honoree.

“What an absolute honor,” she said. “It was definitely unexpected, very kind and absolutely heartwarming. It’s wonderful to feel that connection to the UF College of Medicine again.”