May 26, 2011
SIU Med School Announces Research Awards for Graduate Students
Twelve graduate students have received top awards in the 21st annual Trainee Research Symposium at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The symposium offers various trainees in Springfield and Carbondale an opportunity to gain experience in making formal presentations of their research findings. Faculty advisors provided assistance for each project.
The top projects in each category, as judged by a panel of faculty, received monetary prizes. The judging criteria included -- preliminary data and research approach, research design, project creativity, originality, and the potential scientific or medical significance.
[Note: Advisors are listed after each project name.]
The first-place graduate student winner for oral presentation was Sumedha Karmarkar, a pharmacology student from India, for her project “Resistance of SCN2.2 Neurons to Glutamate Excitotoxicity is Dependent on ERK/MAPK Signaling” (Shelley Tischkau, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology, and Dr. Kathleen Bottum, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine).
Second place was awarded to two graduate students –
- Daniel J. Kanak, a physiology graduate student from Carbondale, for his project “In-Vitro Evidence of Decreased Intrahippocampal Network Synchrony in a Rodent Model of Normal and Accelerated Aging” (Peter Patrylo, Ph.D, associate professor of physiology); and
- Sandeep Sheth, a pharmacology graduate student from India, for his project “Micro RNA-21 Serves as an Essential Target for Resveratrol’s Anti-Tumor Action Against Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cells” (Vickram Ramkumar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology).
Three graduate students were awarded third-place for their projects –
- Archi Joardar, a biochemistry and molecular biology graduate student from India, for his project “Structural and Functional Characterization of Archaeal Pus10 Proteins” (Ramesh Gupta, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology);
- Shivani Malik, a biochemistry and molecular biology graduate student from India, for her project “A Novel Role of Rad26 in Dynamic Chromatin Disassembly During Transcriptional Elongation in Vivo” (Sukesh R. Bhaumik, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology); and
- Debolina Ghosh, a medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology graduate student from India, for her project “An Oxidative Shift in NADH and Glutathione before ROS Damage in Neurons with Aging and in an Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model” (Gregory Brewer, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology).
The first-place graduate student winner for poster presentation was Navneet Singh, a medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology graduate student from India, for “Loss of G-Protein Coupled Calcium Sensing Receptor Augments Malignancy and Bestows Cancer Stem Cell-Like Properties in Human Colon Carcinoma Cells” (Subhas Chakrabarty, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology).
Two graduate students were awarded second-place for their project –
- Mrinmoyee Majumder, biochemistry and molecular biology graduate student from India, for his project “Cbf5p is Not Essential for Survival of Halferax Volcanii but is Required for Pseudoridylation of 235 RRNA” (Gupta); and
- Grace Ramena, a medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology graduate student from India, for her project “A Novel Biotherapeutic for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” (Randolph Elble, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology).
Three graduate students were awarded third-place for their project –
- Scott Geiger, a physiology graduate student from Carbondale, for his project “Effects of Aging on the Expression of PTGS1, PTGS2 and SDR36C1 in the Hen Ovary” (Buck Hales, Ph.D., professor, and Karen Hales, Ph.D., assistant professor, both physiology);
- Joshua Geltz, a medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology graduate student from Murphysboro, for his project “Microtubule-Stabilizing Drugs Trap ICPO in Microtubule Bundles and Inhibit the Spread of Herpes Simplex Virus” (William Halford, Ph.D., associate professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology); and
- Adam Ploegman, a physiology graduate student from Carbondale, for his project “FOXM1 is Expressed in Actively Proliferating Cells During Pituitary Gland Development” (Buffy Ellsworth, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology).
Judges for this year’s symposium were Lydia Arbogast, Ph.D., professor physiology; Dr. Laurent Brard, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology; Michael Collard, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology; Judith Davie, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy; Dr. Saadiq El-Amin, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery; Douglas Fix, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology; Peter Hardwicke, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry; David King, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy; Andrew Sharp, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy; Rita Trammell, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine; and Andrew Wilber, Ph.D., assistant professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology.
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