Jaymin Kathiriya, MS, an aspiring young researcher who investigates how hypoxia exacerbates pulmonary fibrosis, was among the select group of 11 students invited to give oral presentations at the 2016 USF Health Research Day.
Kathiriya, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, was enthusiastic about the chance to present his research before student peers and faculty judges Feb. 19 in the Oval Theatre at the USF Marshall Student Center. Even more than that, he appreciated the opportunity to mingle with fellow aspiring young researchers from across all USF Health colleges and disciplines, as well as guest researchers from USF programs studying the science of health.
“I’m excited about being able to get critical input and different ideas from so many different people,” he said.
The energy of aspiring young researchers from across all USF Health colleges and disciplines generated a buzz in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom during the 2016 USF Health Research Day.
A training ground for aspiring researchers, physicians
Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, served as a judge for this year’s Research Day. He said he was impressed by the depth and breadth of the research activities encompassed in the nearly 330 poster presentations.
“I have dedicated a significant portion of my career to my own research and to training physician-scientists – so I may be biased,” Dr. Lockwood said. “But, I strongly believe that, beyond its intrinsic importance in promoting health, research makes one a better provider by disciplining the mind to collect all the requisite data and then carefully and correctly interpret it to make the correct diagnosis and choose the optimal therapy.”
Dr. Charles Lockwood judges the work of Kristen Marcet, second-year medical student.
Phillip Marty, PhD, associate vice president for USF Health Research, agreed.
“Our faculty are engaged in important research, which translates directly to our students, graduate students, residents and trainees who are presenting here today,” Dr. Marty said. “It is a great training ground for the rest of their careers.”
This year’s slate of presenters included more students and trainees and slightly fewer faculty, Dr. Marty said, perhaps a reflection of the event’s return to its roots of showcasing science learners.
Paul R. Sanberg, PhD, DSc, Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation & Economic Development, said USF is committed to providing its students with research and commercialization opportunities to support their growth and development as scientists, leaders and, ultimately, mentors to others.
“The accomplishments of your faculty, students, trainees and staff at celebrated at Research Day are more examples of USF Health’s continued impact in research and innovation,” Dr. Sanberg said.
Nearly 330 students and faculty presented their research projects in a judged competition.
Student contributions to scientific body of knowledge
In Dr. Dave Vrushank’s laboratory, Kathiriya works with cell and animal models to help investigate the contribution of low oxygen levels, or hypoxia, to pulmonary fibrosis of unknown cause, known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is an incurable disease in which tissue deep in the lung becomes scarred over time. The prevalence of this incurable disease, which kills up to 40,000 Americans a year, has increased as the aged population has grown.
“We are trying to determine the exact (molecular) nuances of hypoxia in the lung that cause pulmonary fibrosis,” Kathiriya said. “We’ve found that hypoxia is a systemic injurious factor involving a number of signaling pathways that cause fibrosis in nature, but these different pathways have common protein mediators – FAK1 and Galectin-1 – that may be leveraged as therapeutic targets for pulmonary fibrosis.”
Jaymin Kathiriya, MS, MCOM doctoral student in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, was among the select group of 11 students invited to give oral presentations at the 2016 USF Health Research Day.
The lab continues to work on developing a mouse model that correlates well with the slow, progressive features seen in IPF patients in the clinic, and on identifying drug candidates to test using in vivo models.
The study that second-year medical student Abby Pribish presented at Research Day was supported by a full-time summer scholarship from the Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program. In the laboratory of Danielle Gulick at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Pribish tested the hypothesis that frequent light cycle alternations disruptive to circadian rhythm, the internal biological clock, would increase alcohol drinking in adolescent mice.
She and her lab colleagues found that breaking the circadian clock of the young mice did not cause them to drink more alcohol; however, the way the mice drank alcohol changed significantly. They consumed the same volume of alcohol in more rapid short bouts during the day.
“Messing up the light cycles caused them to binge drink,” Pribish said. “What we think is happening is that the adolescent mice seem to be intentionally spiking their blood alcohol concentration as a mechanism for coping with circadian desynchrony.”
Second-year medical student Abby Pribish was also invited to speak about her research in the oral presentation session. Her study focused on how circadian desynchrony would affect alcohol consumption in adolescent mice. -Photo by Sandra C. Roa
Pribish plans to continue to pursue her interest in addiction medicine, particularly as it pertains to adolescents — a population she says has not been studied as much as adults when it comes to alcohol use and treatment.
“Eleven percent of the alcohol consumption in the U.S. is by adolescents, and 90 percent of this (under-age) drinking is binge drinking,” she said. “It’s a huge problem… and I definitely want to be part of the solution in my career in research and as a doctor.”
Therapeutic insights from the genetics of ALS
Physician-scientist Robert H. Brown, Jr., MD, DPhil, who is nationally renowned for research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, delivered the Annual Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship. He is professor and chair of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Medical School.
Research Day keynote speaker Dr. Robert H. Brown has a record of significant discoveries in identifying gene defects that elucidate how ALS causes neurons to die.
Dr. Brown spoke about investigations by his laboratory and others to harness genetics as a pathway to understanding how ALS causes neurons to die and to gain insights into potential therapies for this progressive paralyzing neuromuscular disorder with no effective treatment. In 1993, he led a team that identified the first gene linked to hereditary ALS (copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1, or SOD1) and mapped the mechanisms for SOD1 neurotoxicity in humans and in cellular and animal models.
Today, more than 50 ALS-related genes showing familial transmission have been discovered, and Dr. Brown’s work provides evidence that genes implicated in inherited ALS also play a role in the more common sporadic form of the disease.
The end goal is to create better models of the disease to probe therapies – everything from small molecules, biologics and antibiodies to tropic factors secreted by stem cells and gene silencing, said Dr. Brown, whose team has engineered an artificial miRNA against SOD1, which is packaged into an adenoassociated virus vector. As in cancer, multiple interventions may be required to overcome the complex patterns of gene expression in ALS, he added.
From left: Dr. Bryan Bognar, vice dean of MCOM Educational Affairs; Dr. Phillip Marty, associate vice president for USF Health Research; Dr. Paul Sanberg, senior vice president for USF Research, Innovation & Economic Development; Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and MCOM dean; Dr. Clifton Gooch, chair of neurology; Dr. Robert H. Brown, USF Health Research Day speaker; and Dr. John Sinnott, chair of internal medicine.
“The genes involved in this disease are not what we expected, and the approaches we will need to treat the disease are yet unknown,” said Dr. Brown. “But there has been substantial progress, so I’m very optimistic that we and others will be able to work toward a treatment in the near term.”
In fact, Dr. Brown said he is he is hopeful therapies that ultimately prove useful in delaying progression and reversing symptoms in ALS may also make a difference in other degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
In addition to Kathiriya and Pribish, the other students selected to present their research at the 7th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session were: Ngozichukwuka Agu; Faris Galambo, BS; Krishna Reddy; Alison E Roth, MPH; Stephanie Ciarlone; Jared Tur; April Lussier; Jessica M Gordon; and Rachel G. Sinkey, MD.
This year’s slate of presenters at the 26th Annual USF Health Research Day included more students and trainees and slightly fewer faculty.
Top Awards
MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Aurelie Joly-Amado, PhD
MCOM Outstanding Fellow Poster Presentation: Liliana Bustamante, MD
MCOM Outstanding Resident Poster Presentation: Anne Mattingly, MD (oncological sciences)
Outstanding Global Pediatric Behavioral Health Poster Presentation: Sophia Zavrou, PsyD
Outstanding Innovations in Medicine Poster Presentation: Rose Tillis
Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Sriram Velamuri
Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Krishna Reddy
Second-year medical student Rose Tillis explains her research findings to Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, former MCOM associate dean and professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Physiology. Tillis won an Outstanding Innovations in Medicine award for the poster titled “Hydrocolloid Bra for Nipple Sparing Mastectomy.”
Best Graduate Student Poster Presentations:
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Allergy and Immunology: Jillian Whelan
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Stephanie Buttermore
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Cardiovascular and Clinical Science Research: Natascha Alves
Masters Student Interdisciplinary Research: Kathryn Fomuke and Andrew McGill
Doctoral Student Poster Presentation: Molecular and Cellular Biology: Jaymin Kathiriya
Kathiriya’s presentation “Hypoxia Exacerbates Pulmonary Fibrosis via FAK1 and Galectin-1 In Vitro and In Vivo” won one of the MCOM Best Doctoral Student Poster Presentation awards. Here he is congratulated by Internal Medicine Chair Dr. John Sinnott.
Best Medical Student Poster Presentations:
Med I Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Nima Hosseinian
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Curtis Gravenmier
Med II Student Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Research: Kristen Marcet
Med II Student Poster Presentation, Case Studies and Chart Reviews: Andrew Lai, MPH, Anthony Clark, and Luis Perez-Mena
Med III Student Poster Presentation, Case Study and Chart Review: Kyle Achors
Med III Student Poster Presentation, Empirical Study: Laura Kidd
Med IV Student Poster Presentation Case Study and Chart Review: Cheryl Godcharles
Andie Dodge, a Department of Molecular Physiology and Pharmacology research technician in Dr. Edwin Weeber’s laboratory, was first author on a poster presentation titled “Knock down of Disabled-1 inhibitory neurons reveal novel role in synaptic plasticity.” Dodge is applying for graduate school.
Best Medical Resident Poster Presentations:
MCOM Resident Poster Presentation: Interdisciplinary Case Studies: Jennifer Divine, MD, and Joanna Robles, MD
MCOM Resident Poster Presenation: Case Study and Chart Review: Karina Vivar, MD
MCOM Fellow Poster Presentation: Case Study and Chart Review: Sangeetha Prabhakaran, MD
Ruisheng Liu, MD, PhD (center), professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology, and Ingrid Bahner, PhD (right), associate professor of molecular medicine, pause from their busy judging schedule to pose for a photo. Some 83 faculty from all USF Health colleges and some affiliates served as judges for Research Day.
Subhra Mohapatra, PhD, (right) associate professor of molecular medicine, with Patricia Askins, a student from Sarasota High School who has been mentored by Dr. Mohapatra for the last year.
Keynote speaker Dr. Brown stopped by to look at the science projects exhibited by middle school students from Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa. Kennedy Wakefield (left) and Bella Gonzalez-Portillo discussed their poster presentation “The Effects of Over-the-Counter Drugs” with him.
Students retrieve their Research Day award certificates.
Video by Sandra C. Roa and photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications & Marketing
