Record Number of MU Students Present Innovations at Health Sciences Research Day

More than 200 MU students presented innovative scientific research at University of Missouri’s 2017 Health Sciences Research Day.

Health Sciences Research Day provides an annual forum for MU undergraduate, medical, nursing and health professions students, as well as pre- and postdoctoral trainees, to showcase their research. The public event featured a wide range of health topics including autism, cancer, diabetes and orthopaedic knee repairs. Students displayed their work in the School of Medicine’s Acuff Gallery at the day-long event.

“Health Sciences Research Day is an annual event at which we recognize and celebrate the important contributions that students make to health sciences research,” said Jerry Parker, PhD, associate dean for research at the MU School of Medicine. “In addition to training researchers, we also train future scientists how to present their results. This event also helps us recognize excellence in research mentoring and provides a networking opportunity for the entire MU campus to foster new research collaborations.”

During the event, the Dorsett L. Spurgeon, M.D., Distinguished Medical Research Award is presented annually to an MU School of Medicine researcher for outstanding accomplishments early in his or her career. This year’s award winner recipient was Karla Washington, PhD, LCSW, assistant professor of family and community medicine at the MU School of Medicine. Her focus on hospice and palliative care has helped bring federally funded medical research to an often overlooked subject. Washington recently concluded a randomized clinical trial designed to reduce family caregivers’ psychological distress by enhancing problem solving support via telehealth technologies.

Three Dean’s Awards were presented to health sciences students for their research abstracts.

• Sinclair School of Nursing Dean’s Award — Poungkamon Krisanabud, Ph.D. student, won for her research on irritable bowel syndrome and its effects on physical activity.
• School of Health Professions Dean’s Award — Chinedum Ojinnaka, a post-doctorate fellow, won for her research in disparities in access and utilization in health care services for children with and without special needs.
• School of Medicine Dean’s Award — Allison Watkins, a second year medical student, won for her research in whether infants at risk for retinopathy of prematurity can be diagnosed through urine testing.

Two Excellence in Mentoring Awards were presented health sciences researchers for their work with students.

• Excellence in Research Mentoring of Trainees Award – Dongsheng Duan, PhD
• Excellence in Research Mentoring of Junior Faculty Award — David Mehr, MD, MS

Awards also were presented to students for basic science and clinical research in two categories: Category I for undergraduate students, medical students and summer-research fellowship participants, and Category II for graduate students, resident physicians, medical physician fellows and post-doctoral researchers.

Research Day Award Recipients

Category I Clinical

• First place – Kelsey Busken, second-year medical student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Bindu Kanathezhath Sathi, assistant professor of clinical child health at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Identification of Patient-Specific Factors Associated with Alloimmunization in Sickle Cell Disease”
• Second place – Alison Huber, fourth-year medical student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Nicholas Golda, M.D., associate professor of dermatology at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Determining the Impact of Intraoperative Smoke Evacuation on the Patient Experience During Outpatient Surgery: A randomized controlled trial”
• Third place – Thomas Schmittdiel, second-year medical student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Jacob Quick, M.D., associate professor of acute care surgery at MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Blood Component Therapy Increases Risk of Pneumonia in Acute Care Surgery Patients”

Category I Basic

• First place – Michael Nance, pre-doctoral student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Dongsheng Duan, Ph.D., professor in medical research at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Dystrophic Murine Free Muscle Graft as a Model For Assessing Adeno-Associated Virus Crispr Gene Editing in Muscle Stem Cells”
• Second place – Samuel Jenkins, an undergraduate at the University of Missouri, mentored by James Sowers, M.D., professor of endocrinology at the MU School of Medicine, and Adam Whaley-Connell, D.O., professor of medicine at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Endothelial Cell-Specific Epithelial Sodium Channel Activation in Endothelial Dysfunction, Aortic and Cardiac Stiffness in Obese Female Mice”
• Third place – James T. Stannard, first-year medical student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by James Cook, Ph.D., DVM, the William and Kathryn Allen Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, and the director of the Thompson Laboratory for Regenerative Orthopaedics, for the research project, “Long Term Preservation of Whole Organ Intervertebral Disc Allografts”

Category II Clinical

• First place – Swithin Razu, doctoral candidate at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Trent Guess, Ph.D., associate professor of physical therapy at the MU School of Health Professions and associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “Multi-Scale Model in Co-Simulation to Estimate Patellofemoral Contact Stress in Total Knee Replacement”
• Second place – Hemanth Kandikattu, postdoctoral fellow at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Chandrasekar Bysani, DVM, Ph.D. the Margaret Proctor Mulligan Endowed Professor at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “TRAF3IP2 Expression is Increased in Failing Human Hearts of Ischemic Origin and Mediates the Pro-Fibrotic Responses of TGF-β-IN Cultured Cardiac Fibroblasts”
• Third place – Arya Namin, resident physician at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Robert Zitsch, M.D., the William E. Davis Professor and chair of the department of otolaryngology, for the research project, “Impact Of Biopsy Modality on the Management of Cutaneous Melanoma of the Head and Neck”

Category II Basic

• First place – Vinit Shanbhag, graduate student at MU, mentored by Michael Petris, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry at MU, for the research project, “Role For ATP7A Copper Transporter in Cisplatin Resistance, Tumorigenesis and Metastasis”
• Second place – Catherine Omosule, second-year Ph.D. student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Charlotte Phillips, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry at MU, for the research project, “Characterization of Tibial Gene Expression Patterns of in Osteogenesis Imperfecta Murine (OIM) and G610c Models of OI”
• Third place – Austin Lawrence, Ph.D. student at the MU School of Medicine, mentored by Carol Ward, Ph.D., the Curator’s Professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at the MU School of Medicine, for the research project, “The Evolution of Femoroacetabular Impingement”

The event was organized and sponsored by the MU Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. Health Sciences Research Day also partners with the MU School of Medicine, MU Sinclair School of Nursing, MU School of Health Professions and the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital.