TWO Irish university graduates will spend the next six months receiving an invaluable education in two of New York's most prestigious teaching hospitals while also leaving their mark on medical history.Martin Downes, 32, and Cork woman Leagh Powell, 23, arrived in New York last month to participate in a six month research program; Powell with Weill Cornell Medical College and Downes with Mount Sinai School of Medicine.The FAS Science Challenge Program, organized by FAS (the Irish National Training and Employment Authority) and headed up by John Cahill, affords 43 Irish graduates an opportunity to come to the U.S. each year to spend six months doing research in their chosen area and to work side by side with the best professionals the U.S. has to offer in environments that have outstanding reputations in their fields of research.Downes, from Co. Limerick, told the Irish Voice during an interview at the offices of Enterprise Ireland on Park Avenue that he is delighted to be working at with Dr. Tom McGinn and Dr. Juan Wisnivesky at the Division of General and Internal Medicine of Epidemiology at Mount Sinai, where he is quickly settling into the mounds of research in the area of asthma and the condition's relationship to household pets.Downes, who received a degree in veterinary medicine in the nineties from UCD, worked in the area for eight years before he decided to undertake a PhD in 2006."I will be looking at a survey done on asthma patients and because of my background in veterinary, I'll be looking at links between dogs and cats and asthma in a household," Downes said of his research."There is already quiet a lot of research out there, but a lot of it is based on genetics and the development of immunology towards it. Some people say if you have a cat or a dog in a household early on in life you become immune to asthma, but others say the opposite."Downes will be looking at it from the opposite angle. "I'm trying to discover if having pets in the house can actually cause asthma," he added. Powell, who just graduated from the University College Cork a few months ago and began her masters with the National University of Galway last month, will spend her time in New York in the Pharmacology Department at Weill Cornell Medical College. She will be mentored by the department chairman Dr. Lorraine Gudas. Powell will participate in an ongoing translational research project in collaboration with members of the department of urology to investigate novel biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in human bladder and prostate cancers."I will look at how genes and proteins interact and see how they effect bladder and prostate cancer cells," said the Cork woman.Powell, who already has a degree in genetics, said she chose to research cancer because she feels it's "a really important field at the moment, and what better place to do it than at Cornell." Other Irish graduates are spread across the U.S. conducting their research in various institutions and companies in places like Florida, North Carolina and Texas to name but a few. Areas of study include bioscience, engineering and information communication technology."Some of the graduates are fortunate enough to be at NASA. Most of them are engineers," Powell said.Powell, who is visiting New York for the first time, said she applied for Cornell because of its "prestigious reputation" and "fantastic history with research."She is currently spending all her time in the pharmacology lab where she hopes to complete her work in the short time frame under the watchful eye of her New York supervisor, Irish born Dr. Nigel Mongan. After her time in New York Powell will return to Ireland with her findings and spend another six months writing up a paper."I hope after all that is done to eventually do a PhD and someday run my own lab," she said.Downes said he hopes to continue in the area of academia for the next few years, and maybe tie it in with a bit of world traveling."This program is very rewarding, and Leagh and I are lucky enough have the opportunity to spend the next six months in New York at Mount Sinai and Cornell, and it's all thanks to FAS," said Downes.