UC College of Medicine hosts graduate student research forum

The College of Medicine's Office of Graduate Education hosted its 39th annual Graduate Student Research Forum on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. The forum brought students from across the range of graduate research programs in the College of Medicine to participate in poster presentations.

The event drew 90 poster presentations, while more than 100 faculty, postdoctoral fellows and staff participated in the judging of the presentations.

Each graduate student poster was judged by two judges based on scientific research and one lay judge, who determined which students were best able to communicate the nature of their work in non-scientific language. Scores from the scientific judges were combined to determine the top research presenters while lay judge scores were tabulated to determine which poster received “Lay Judge Distinction.”

First place honors went to Seth Reighard, immunology; while second place went to M. Jordan Althoff, cancer and cell biology. Third place awards went to Kara Wolfe, cancer and cell biology; Loryn Holokai, molecular genetics, biochemistry and microbiology; and Theodore Ruwe, systems biology and physiology.

Six honorable mentions were presented to Kobina Essandoh, molecular, cellular and biochemical pharmacology; Melanie McKell, immunology; Hannah Russell, pathobiology and molecular medicine; Ayad Ali, immunology; Jiuzhou Huo, molecular, cellular and biochemical pharmacology; and Ellen Kolb, molecular genetics, biochemistry and microbiology.

Lay Judge Distinctions was awarded to Loryn Holokai, molecular genetics, biochemistry and microbiology; Bidisha Pal, cancer and cell biology; and Benjamin Weinhaus, immunology.

The Graduate Student Research Forum also included a keynote address from Joseph Hyser, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, who presented “The Use and Abuse of Long-Distance Signaling During Viral Diarrhea.”

Laura Conforti, PhD, professor in the Division of Nephrology Kidney CARE program, was presented the Richard Akeson Excellence in Teaching Award, an annual honor bestowed by the Health Sciences Graduate Association.

All photos are courtesy of Robert Brackenbury, PhD.