SIU students & residents honored at Trainee Research Symposium

May 14, 2019 — Young researchers at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine show great promise as they pursued answers to scientific queries during the 29th annual Trainee Research Symposium held recently at the medical school. The two-day symposium on April 23 and 26 offered 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. 

“Our students and residents tackle these projects with the dedication and curiosity of professional scientists,” said Don Torry, PhD, professor and interim associate dean for research. “Their work alongside the faculty is fundamental to our efforts to improve patient care, advance existing treatments and procedures, and develop new therapies. It’s truly impressive to see the progress made each year.”

Medical topics at the 2019 symposium covered a spectrum from discovery-based research to the bedside. The top projects in each trainee category, as judged by panels of faculty, received monetary prizes.

Oral Presentations:

• Sixteen SIU School of Medicine resident physicians presented their research projects. The top prize went to Timothy Daugherty, MD, a surgery resident from Decatur, who earned first place for his project “Potential Mechanism of Skin Improvement in Radiation Wounds Following Fat Grafting: The Fate of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells and Role of Stromal Vascular Fraction.” Michael Neumeister, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery, served as Daugherty’s advisor.
• Fourth-year medical student Jeffrey Gross of Jacksonville earned first place among nine medical students for his project “Lentivirus-Mediated Expression of the RNA-Binding Protein IGF2BP1 Reverses Fetal-to-Adult Hemoglobin Production in Culture-Differentiated Eythroid Cells from Patients with Severe Hemoglobin Disorders.” Andrew Wilber, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology (MMICB), served as Gross’s advisor.
• Pharmacology student Asmita Dhukwa of Kathmandu, Nepal, earned first place among 16 graduate students for her oral presentation “Inhibition of Regulator of G-Protein Signaling 17 Alleviates Cisplatin Otoxicity by Enhancing Otoprotective G-Protein Coupled Receptor.” Vickram Ramkumar, PhD, professor of pharmacology, served as Dhukwa’s advisor.

Poster Presentations:  

●     Two graduate students earned first places for their poster presentations. Ramadevi Chilamkurthy, of Machilipatnam, India, earned first place for his poster presentation “Controlling CRISPR Outcomes:  Cas9 Fusion to DNA Damage Repair Modules.” Keith Gagnon, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, served as Chilamkurthy’s advisor. Deepak Hiremath of Davangere, India, also won first place for his poster presentation “Sexual Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Familial-Male Limited Precocious Puberty.”  Prema Narayan, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Physiology served as Hiremath’s mentor.

●     Kaitlin Gibson, a third-year medical student from Bloomington, received an award for her research “Understanding and Diagnosing Endometrial Cancer Using Multi-Organ Microbial Taxonomic Signatures.” Andrea Braundmeier-Fleming, associate professor of MMICB, served as Gibson’s advisor.

●     Nishat Fatima, MD, an internal medicine resident from Hyderabad, India, received an award for her poster on “Adrenocortical Carcinoma Diagnosed During Evaluation of an Incidentally Discovered Adrenal Mass.” Michael Jakoby, MD, associate professor of internal medicine, served as Fatima’s advisor.

SIU faculty judges for this year’s symposium included:  Kathleen Bottum, MD, PhD; Donald Caspary, PhD; Krati Chauhan, MD; Brandon Cox, PhD; Rebecka Lopez, MD; Paula Mackrides, MD; Christopher McDowell, MD; Michael Olson, PhD; Chinmay Patel, MD; Vidya Sundareshan, MD; Jacqueline Vardaros, PharmD; Andrew Varney, MD; Ashra Verma, MD; James Waymack, MD; Abhinav Adhikari; Brent Bany, PhD; Sukesh Bhaumik, PhD; Donald Caspary, PhD; Julio Copello, PhD; Judith Davie, PhD; Buffy Ellsworth, PhD; Dale “Buck” Hales, PhD; Kanako Hayashi, PhD; Philip Jensik, PhD; Farid Kadyrov, PhD; James MacLean, PhD; Prema Narayan, PhD; Daotai Nie, PhD; Shelley Tischkau, PhD; Andrew Wilber, PhD; and Matthew Young, PhD. They were joined by two physician judges from Springfield Clinic: Chaitanya Mammillapalli, MD, and Richa Pandey, MD.

View the full list of awardees below.