Graduating Students Present Their Research at Research Day

The 12th Annual CCLCM Research Day, held on March 11, featured exceptional oral presentations and posters by our graduating class on the work they completed during their research year.

Renee N. Salas, MD (‘09), MPH, MS, a nationally recognized expert on climate change and health, gave the keynote address, speaking on “The CCLCM Mission of Transformative Change: The Climate Crisis and Beyond.” Dr. Salas is a Yerby Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Affiliated Faculty and a previous Burke Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute. She practices emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The students’ names, titles of their research work and research mentors are listed below.

Class of 2022 oral research presentations

Jacob Knorr
The role of the urinary microbiome on BCG response in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer
Mentor: Byron H. Lee MD, PhD

Daniel Leonard
Small molecule selectively enhances phosphatase function through biased heterotrimer stabilization
Mentors: Goutham Narla, MD, PhD (University of Michigan), and Derek Taylor, PhD (Case Western Reserve University)

Debra Linfield
Primary care physician referral practices regarding BRCA1/2 genetic counseling in a major health system
Mentor: Kathryn Martinez, PhD, MPH

Weilin (Melissa) Song
A unified model of hyperoxia of prematurity: Systemic HIF stabilization protects developing vasculature of the eye and brain
Mentor: Jonathan Sears, MD

Raoul Wadhwa
Tumor topology is associated with survival in lung cancer
Mentor: Jacob G. Scott, MD, DPhil

Alexia Zagouras
Clinical characteristics and autoimmune mechanisms associated with heart failure in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases
Mentor: Wilson Tang, MD

Class of 2022 mini presentations, abstracts

Frederick Allen
Age- and sex-dependent protein expression of the human lymphoblast
Mentor: Marvin Natowicz, MD, PhD

Salam Bachour
Isolated anastomotic lesions do not increase risk for severe endoscopic disease progression in postoperative Crohn’s disease
Mentor: Benjamin Click, MD

Jordan Bell
Validation of automated machine learning-augmented optical coherence tomography-based volumetric fluid quantification
Mentor: Justis P. Ehlers, MD

Ellen Brinza, MPH, MS
Implementation of ankle-brachial index screening for peripheral artery disease in the Ugandan population
Mentor: Chris Longenecker, MD (University of Washington)

Melissa Coronado
Neuroperformance and MRI measures predict quality of life in pediatric- and adult-onset multiple sclerosis
Mentor: Mary Rensel, MD

Emily Durbak
Effect of female reproductive status on aortopathies
Mentor: Eric Roselli, MD

Michael Haupt
Quantitative analysis of hemiplegic gait following forced exercise intervention
Mentor: Susan Linder, DPT

Jessica Jones
Exploring the role of sex and sex hormones on plasmacytoid dendritic cells in systemic lupus erythematosus
Mentor: Trine Jorgensen, PhD

Sophia Figueroa Katz
Association of genetic risk, BMI, physical activity, and muscular fitness with NAFLD: A gene-environment interaction study
Mentor: Joshua Knowles, MD, PhD, and Theresia Schnurr, PhD (Stanford University)

Navkiranjot Kaur
Characterization and prediction of short-term outcomes in memory following temporal lobe resection in children with epilepsy
Mentor: Robyn M. Busch, PhD

Maxwell Lee
Chimeric antigen receptor engineered NK cellular immunotherapy overcomes the selection of T-cell escape variant cancer cells
Mentor: Clint Allen, MD (National Institutes of Health)

Shreya Louis
Using multi-omics to develop personalized approaches to post-operative seizure-freedom prediction in temporal lobe epilepsy patients
Mentor: Daniel Rotroff, PhD; Lara Jehi, MD; and Charis Eng, MD, PhD

Wenting Ma
Molecular and anatomical profiling of neuronal cell populations responsible for pain and pain control in the rat dorsal root ganglia
Mentor: Andrew Mannes, MD, ME, MBA; and Michael Iadarola, PhD (National Institutes of Health)

Metabel Tori Markwei, ScM
Perioperative supplemental oxygen and postoperative nausea and vomiting: Sub-analysis of a trial, systematic review, and meta-analysis
Mentor: Daniel I. Sessler, MD

Arbaz Momin
Task-related physiology of the dentatothalamocortical circuit in naïve and stroke rats
Mentor: Andre Machado, MD, PhD

Frederick Morgan
Characterizing dermatologic findings among patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome: results of a multi-center cohort study
Mentor: Cheryl Bayart, MD, MPH (Cincinnati Children’s)

Joan Nambuba, MSBS
Breast uptake on radioiodine scan and serum prolactin in thyroid cancer patients prepared by thyroid hormone withdrawal or recombinant human thyrotropin: A prospective study
Mentor: Christian Nasr, MD

Jatin Narang
Pathophysiology and clinical impact of the cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19
Mentor: Anthony Fernandez, MD, PhD

Deborah Park
Quality of life and neurocognitive function following concurrent temozolomide-based chemoradiation therapy or observation in low-grade glioma
Mentor: Erin Murphy, MD

Briana Prager
CRISPR screening of CAR T cells and cancer stem cells reveals critical dependencies for cell-based therapies
Mentor: Jeremy Rich, MD, MHS, MBA (University of Pittsburgh)

Daniel Santana
Efficacy of a composite photothermal, D-amino acid hydrogel for the eradication of bacterial biofilms
Mentor: Nicolas Piuzzi, MD; and Kathleen Derwin, PhD

Spencer S. Seballos
Characterizing homeless patients admitted versus discharged from the emergency department in a regional health system
Mentor: Michael P. Phelan, MD

Megan Sheehan, MS
A description of vitamin D testing practices in a primary care cohort from 2008-2020
Mentor: Michael Rothberg, MD, MPH

Vigneshwar Subramanian
A systematic approach to model design and handling missing data when building multivariable prediction models using clinical data
Mentor: Michael W. Kattan, PhD

Tisileli S. Tuifua
Clinical outcome and risk factor assessment for transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt placement (TIPS) related hepatic infarction: A retrospective comparative study
Mentor: Baljendra Kapoor, MD

Ryan Zhang
Neurologic testing in patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)
Mentor: Robert Wilson, DO

Congratulations to all the students and their mentors for the considerable time, effort and energy they invested in their projects over the past year.