UC Department of Internal Medicine Honors Trainee Research

Jonathan Stefely, PhD, and Christine James, MD, were awarded first place honors in the basic science and clinical research categories, respectively, for the Trainees' Research Grand Rounds Poster Session as part of the 6th Annual Department of Internal Medicine Research Symposium. Thirty-six posters were submitted during the session held on Friday, June 9, 2017, in CARE/Crawley Atrium.

The poster session launched the research symposium which included a keynote address on Friday by Bruce Sullenger, PhD, Joseph W. and Dorothy W. Beard Professor of Experimental Surgery and associate professor in molecular genetics and microbiology, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center. Sullenger's topic was, "Forward and Reverse Translation with RNA Aptamers to Control Coagulation and Inflammation."

The symposium continued on Saturday, June 10, in Kingsgate Marriott, with a keynote address by Steven Houser, PhD, president of the American Heart Association, and professor and senior associate dean at Temple University. Houser's topic was, "The Future of Precision Medicine: Cardiac Repair and Injury." Breakout sessions highlighting basic science and clinical research continued throughout Saturday.

During the trainees' poster session, Stefely took top honors in the basic science category for the research poster titled, "New Anti-Cancer Candidates in the mTOR-Autophagy Pathway Revealed by Mass Spectrometry Proteomics." Stefely's mentor is Carol Mercer, PhD, Division of Hematology Oncology. He received a $500 prize.

James took the top award in the clinical research category for the research titled, "The Effect of HEPA Air Purification on Asthmatic Children Exposed to Traffic-Related Airborne Particles." Her mentor was David Bernstein, MD, Division of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology. James received a $500 prize.

Second place in the basic science category went to Keith Saum for the research titled "Design and Performance of a Flow-Conditioning Endovascular Implant for Improving Arteriovenous Fistula Maturation." Saum's mentor is Begonia Campos, PhD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program. Saum received a $250 prize.

Second place in the clinical research category went to Sulsal Hague, MD, for the research titled, "Outcomes in Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) Requiring Salvage Resection After Definitive Therapy." Hague received a $250 prize.

Donatien Kamden Toukam, PhD, received honorable mention in the basic science category for the research titled "Vaccine Derived from Cancer Stem Cells Engineered to Express Interleukin-15 and its Receptor Inhibits Tumor Growth." Toukam's mentor was John Morris, MD, Division of Hematology Oncology. Toukam received a $150 prize.

Richa Patel, MD, received honorable mention in the clinical research category for the research titled "Bone Disease in Adult Onset Hypophosphatasia: A Management Dilemma." Patel's mentor is Abid Yaqub, MD, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Patel received a $150 prize.

Gregory Rouan, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine along with Manoocher Soleimani, MD, associate chair for basic research and Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, associate chair for translational research, offered thanks to 46 faculty who served as judges.

Faculty serving as judges included the following: Enass Abdel-Hameed, MD, PhD; Bassam Abu Jawdeh, MD; Manish Anand, MD; Richard Becker, MD; Ruchi Bhabhra, MD, PhD; Michael Binder, MD; Barry Brook, MD; George Deepe, MD; Zhongyun Dong, MD, PhD; Heather Duncan, PhD; Mark Eckman, MD; Hala Elnakat Thomas, PhD; Fred Finkelman, MD; Jennifer Forrester, MD; Jason Gardner, PhD; Nishant Gupta, MD; Kevin Haworth, PhD; Aliecia Hochhausler, MD; Kristin Hudock, MD; Donetta Jackson; Zana Lummus, PhD and Rajat Madan, MD, PhD.

Other judges assisting during the symposium include the following: Carol Mercer, PhD; Anum Minhas, MD; John Morris, MD; Kim Nguyen, MD; Nik Nikolaidis, PhD; Phillip Owens, III, PhD; Shailendra Patel, MD, PhD; Xiaoyang Qi; PhD; Adam Rose, MD; Gregory Rouan, MD; Jack Rubinstein; MD; Sharmeela Saha, MD; Daniel Schauer, MD; Silvi Shah, MD; Mohamed Tarek Shata, MD, PhD; Kenneth Sherman, MD, PhD; Eric Smith, MD; George Smulian, MD; Dylan Steen, MD; Michael Tranter, PhD; Houman Varghai, MD; Juliane Vierecke, MD; Abid Yaqub, MD; Jane Yu, PhD; Eric Warm, MD, and Muhammad Ahsan Zafar, MD.