Graduating Students Share Novel Research at Research Day

Congratulations to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Class of 2024 for their outstanding research projects, showcased during the 14th Annual CCLCM Research Day, held on March 22.

Kalil Abdullah, MD (‘12), MSc, delivered the keynote address, “Metabolic vulnerabilities in malignant brain tumors: From operating room to bench and back.” A neurosurgeon-scientist, Dr. Abdullah serves as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of Translational Neuro-Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His research focuses on glioma biology, and he created a novel model system to study low-grade gliomas to explore the role of metabolic drivers of gliomagenesis. His research interest also involves developing new drugs and treatment targets for brain cancers. He has served as the principal investigator for numerous glioma clinical trials and is actively involved in bringing brain tumor drugs from the laboratory to early-stage clinical trials.

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

Class of 2024 Oral Research Presentations

Christie Campla

Hepatic HIF stabilization by novel carbonyl glycine derivatives protects against oxygen-induced retinopathy

Mentor: Jonathan Sears, MD

Magdalena Fay

Combined TGF-β/PD-L1 blockade enhances systemic antitumor immunity in head and neck cancer

Mentor: Clint T. Allen, MD

Adam Lauko

SerpinB3 drives cancer stem cell survival in glioblastoma

Mentor: Justin Lathia, PhD

Precious Oyem

Tissue perfusion and wound complications in soft tissue sarcoma surgery

Mentor: Lukas M. Nystrom, MD

Abdelrahman Rahmy

Genome-wide CRISPR gene knockout screen identifies enrichment of Ras pathway as potential resistance mechanism to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in RET-driven medullary thyroid carcinoma

Mentor: Javed Khan, MD

James Sullivan

Discontinuation of anti-TNFα therapy is associated with a gain-of-function TNFR2-R polymorphic variant, in patients with psoriatic arthritis

Mentor: M. Elaine Husni, MD, MPH

Class of 2024 Mini Presentations, Abstracts

Emily Abramczyk

Association of intravenous neostigmine and anticholinergics or sugammadex with postoperative delirium: A retrospective cohort study

Mentor: Daniel Sessler, MD

Maleeha Ahmad

Novel histologic factors driving chronic hepatitis D progression

Mentor: Theo Heller, MD

Cydni Akesson

Cross-talk between the complement system and pro-inflammatory cytokines influences the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in the pathogenesis of endometriosis

Mentor: Elliott Richards, MD, PhD

Heeruk Bhatt

Comparing the resolution of skin and muscle disease in patients with dermatomyositis

Mentor: Anthony Fernandez, MD, PhD

Graham B. J. Buchan

Improved accuracy of a novel fluoroscopy-based robotic-assisted THA system compared to manual THA

Mentor: Atul F. Kamath, MD

Samyukta Dore

Racial and socioeconomic disparities in psychiatric readmission risk

Mentor: Brian Barnett, MD

Samuel Harwood

Automated UWFA analysis of diabetic retinopathy

Mentor: Justis Ehlers, MD

Pranay Hegde

Persistence of FLT3-TKD in blood prior to allogeneic transplant is associated with increased relapse and death in adults with AML in first remission

Mentor: Christopher Hourigan, MD, PhD

Suzie Kim

Characterization of FAT1 and Hippo signaling pathway proteins in human retinal pigment epithelium

Mentor: Brian P. Brooks, MD, PhD

Saloni Lad

Longitudinal analysis of social needs in a cohort of transfeminine and transmasculine individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy

Mentor: Juan P. del Rincon, MD

Darren Liu

Cell-free DNA fragmentomics and second malignant neoplasm risk in patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome

Mentor: Charis Eng, MD, PhD

Zaeem Lone

The bladder tumor microbiome may augment response to bacillus calmette guerin (BCG) in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Mentor: Aaron W. Miller, PhD

Katherine Lowe

Assessing the association between patient-reported social determinants of health and health outcomes

Mentor: Jarrod Dalton, PhD

Carlos Munoz-Lopez

Functional recovery after partial nephrectomy: Next generation analysis

Mentor: Steven Campbell, MD, PhD

Derrick Obiri-Yeboah

AQP-4 expression and peritumoral edema in secretory meningiomas: Insights from immunohistochemical analysis

Mentor: Varun Kshettry, MD

Maeve Pascoe

Evaluating sleep through sleep-related patient-reported outcomes & objective sleep measures using smart wearables in a primary brain tumor patient population

Mentor: Terri S. Armstrong, PhD

Gustavo Roversi

Investigating the role of androgen and glucocorticoid metabolism in estrogen-responsive malignancies: Breast cancer

Mentor: Nima Sharifi, MD

Michael Ryan

Comparison of Airmod© and capnography in patients having endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with sedation

Mentor: Alparslan Turan, MD

Srinidhi Singuri

Characterization of Subjects with paramagnetic rim lesions, slowly expanding lesions and double positive lesions in a cohort of multiple sclerosis patients

Mentors: Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD

Abhilash Suresh

Enrichment of tandem repeat element variants near CHD genes identified by short- and long-read genome sequencing

Mentor: Christine Seidman, MD

Matthew A. Thompson, BS, BA

Age is superior to aortopathy phenotype as a predictor of aortic mechanics in patients with bicuspid valve

Mentor: Eric E. Roselli, MD

Samantha Jean Stallkamp Tidd

Factors associated with treatment changes in postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Mentor: Robert Wilson, DO

Kiran Vaidya

Post-surgical myocardial ischemia in AAOCA adult patients undergoing cardiac valve surgery

Mentor: Tara Karamlou, MD

Sarita Walvekar

Radiological characterization of cortical lesions in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy

Mentor: Irene Cortese, MD

Philip Wang

Lipopolysaccharide-induced peripheral immune cell reactivity in depression

Mentor: Carlos Zarate, MD

Angela Wei

Radiologic imaging aids management of high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Mentor: Allison Vidimos, MD

Georgina Whelan

Association of surgery and radiotherapy with risk of thoracic soft tissue sarcoma among older breast cancer survivors

Mentor: Gretchen Gierach, MD

Nicole Winchester

Characteristics and outcomes of patients with community-associated Clostridioides difficile infection and risk factors for severe disease and recurrence

Mentor: Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD

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

Photo credit: Don Gerda