UC Hosts 8th Annual Internal Medicine Research Symposium

The University of Cincinnati (UC) Department of Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine hosted its eighth annual research symposium Friday, April 5, 2019, in the CARE/Crawley Atrium. Trainees submitted 38 posters and each trainee had an identified mentor. The theme for the event was “Building and Fostering Research for Discovery, Innovation and Impact.”

“This year’s symposium attracted overwhelming support from faculty and staff,” explains Gregory Rouan, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. “Forty-five faculty volunteered to judge trainee research posters while staff submitted seven posters in the basic and clinical research categories. Our keynote speaker offered a thought-provoking address that was well attended.”

Rouan also offered thanks to all symposium participants and attendees and to Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, associate chair for translational research, and Sakthivel Sadayappan, PhD, associate chair for basic research, both in the Department of Internal Medicine, for their roles in organizing the event. The keynote speaker was Robert Siliciano, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Siliciano’s address was titled “Curing HIV Infection: Going Beyond N=1.”

The Department of Internal Medicine has long served as an incubator for discovery and scientific advancement at the university and comprises nine divisions with more than 280 faculty as clinicians, scientists and investigators. The department is responsible for $86.9 million in research funding, including $10.3 million in new awards during the 2018 fiscal year.

Research and innovation are among the pillars of UC's strategic direction Next Lives Here.

Winning presentations in the basic research, clinical research and clinical case report categories for the poster competition during the symposium are listed below:

Trainee Basic Research Poster Awards:

1st place tie - $500 award given

Name and Division: Hannah M Russell, Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease

Mentor: A. Phillip Owens, III, PhD

Poster Title: Fibrinogen Depletion Attenuates Angiotensin II-induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

1st place tie - $500 award given

Name and Division: Mohit Kumar, PhD, Department of Pharmacology and System Physiology

Mentor: Sakthivel Sadayappan, PhD

Poster Title: Cardiac myosin binding protein c phosphorylation regulates calcium homeostasis

Honorable Mention Award - $150 award given

Name and Division: Yiyang Lu, Department of Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine

Mentor: Jane Yu, PhD

Poster Title: Rapamycin associated pro-survival pathways that contribute to treatment refractory in Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)

Trainee Clinical Research Poster Awards:

1st place - $500 award given

Name and Division: Masaaki Yamada, MD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E. Program

Mentor: Charuhas V. Thakar, MD

Poster Title: Incidence and Consequence of Hyperkalemia in Solid Organ Transplant: An analysis of over 14,000 organ transplant recipients

2nd place - $250 award given

Name and Division: Nicole Wilson, PharmD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E. Program

Mentor: Rita Alloway, PharmD

Poster Title: Early And Late Borderline Lesions Exhibit Differential Outcomes In Renal Transplant Recipients

Honorable Mention Award - $150 award given

Winner: Malik Khurram Khan, MD, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Mentor: Muhammad Ahsan Zafar, MD, MS-CTR

Poster Title: Reducing Delirium in the Medical ICU - Implementation of a sleep hygiene bundle and standardizing sedation in the Medical ICU

Trainee Clinical Case Report Poster Awards:

1st place - $500 award given

Winner: Yufei Dai, MD, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

Mentor: Robert Cohen, MD

Poster Title: Prolonged glycosuria after Canagliflozin discontinuation in a patient with euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis

2nd place - $250 award given

Winner: Yazan Vwich, MD and Andrew Welch, DO, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

Mentor: Abid Yaqub, MD

Poster Title: Subclinical Cushing's Syndrome with Bilateral Adrenal Adenomas in MEN1

Honorable Mention Award - $150 award given

Winner: Jillian Thompson, DO, Cardiovascular Health and Disease

Mentor: Tehmina Naz, MD

Poster Title: A Case of Isolated Cardiac Sarcoidosis

2019 Research Symposium Poster Competition Staff Awardees:

1st place - $150 award given

Winner: Caterina Bartolacci, PhD, Division of Hematology Oncology

Mentor/PI: Pier Paolo Scaglioni, MD

Poster Title: FASN as a novel Therapeutic Target in Mutant KRAS Lung Cancer

2nd place - $100 award given

Winner: Begoña Campos-Naciff, PhD, Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E. Program

Mentor/PI: Charuhas Thakar, MD

Poster Title: Kidney injury under oxidative stress release CD36 and CD47 microparticles

Honorable Mention Award - $50 award given

Winner: Ameet Chimote, PhD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E. Program

Mentor/PI: Laura Conforti, PhD

Poster Title: Failure to upregulate calmodulin underlies the suppressed KCa3.1 function and enhanced sensitivity to adenosine in CD8+ T cells of head and neck cancer patients

2019 Research Symposium Image Gallery Awardees

Basic Research Images:

1st place - $100 award given

Winner: Kristen Engevik, Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology

Image Title: Mouse Gastric Glands

2nd place - $50 award given

Winner: Andrew Dunn, PhD, Division of Digestive Diseases

Image Title: A Hole New World

Clinical Research Images:

1st place - $100 award given

Winner: Humna Abid Memon, MD, Division of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine

Image Title: Piercing of the Aorta

2nd place - $50 award given

Winner: Ameet Chimote, PhD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program

Image Title: The Soldiers of the Immune System

Images in Medicine:

1st place - $100 award given

Name and Department/Division: Ameet Chimote, PhD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program

Image Title: Reflections

2nd place - $50 award given

Name and Department/Division: Eric P. Smith, MD, Academic Research Services

Image Title: On top of old twister

People’s Choice:

Name and Department/Division: Ameet Chimote, PhD, Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program

Image Title: Fiery Sunset

All story photos by Colleen Kelley/AHC