Research Day Highlights Scholarship Across Specialties

During this 27th annual celebration of scholarship, which was sponsored by the Office of Graduate Medical Education, an interactive poster presentation featured Jacobs School residents, fellows, and generalist scholars sharing research spanning a wide array of topics in medicine.

Courtney Olbrich, MD ’25, a participant in the Jacobs School’s prestigious Generalist Scholars Program, shared a poster with research on older adults’ perception of AI in health care. Among her findings was that 92% of older adults think that AI requires clinician oversight and that their trust in AI varies significantly by health care task.

Olbrich, who’s beginning her family medicine residency at the Jacobs School this summer, said that research on AI perceptions can help inform health care for older adults.

“When we looked at the literature, people had not really studied this, and we didn’t know what older adults really think about AI in health care,” she said. “So, we took a step back and said let’s do a national survey and try to understand what older adults think about AI in health care currently.”

Mahmoud Nassar, MD, PhD, a trainee in UB’s endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellowship program shared research on disparities in insulin pump use among people in the U.S. with Type 1 diabetes. Findings revealed significant disparities in insulin pump adoption, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to promote equitable access to diabetes technology.  

Nassar, who’s soon joining the University of Vermont faculty, noted that the Jacobs School community enabled him to thrive and pursue meaningful research opportunities. “We have very good mentors and attending doctors here from different specialties,” he said. “It’s a very rich environment.” 

Following the poster presentation, Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, thanked the residents and fellows for their commitment to research on top of their clinical and teaching duties. She also spoke to UB’s research strength and impact.

“We are an R1 research institution, and that means that research is part of our DNA; it is core to what we do,” she said.

Brashear reminded the researchers that in their current and future research endeavors, they’ll always have the university’s backing. “There are so many faculty here to support you in whatever you’re doing.”

Gregory S. Cherr, MD, senior associate dean for graduate medical education and professor of surgery, thanked the research scholars for their hard work and acknowledged the faculty mentors for their dedication to scholarship and the facilitators who reviewed and judged the event’s posters.

He invited the scholars to reflect on their effort and devotion and on their own ongoing research journeys.

“It’s a lot of time and effort. But think back of where you were when your projects started and where you’ve ended up,” he said. “To be here sharing what you’ve learned to make your corner of the world a little bit of a better, smarter place, it’s really something special.”

Having spent many years studying Toxoplasma gondii biology, Gustavo Arrizabalaga, PhD, senior associate dean for faculty affairs in the Jacobs School and professor of microbiology and immunology, provided the event’s keynote talk. He shared some of the broader lessons he’s learned while conducting basic science research and investigating the mechanisms that make Toxoplasma such a prolific pathogen.

In the early 2000s, Arrizabalaga had been trying to figure out precisely how the pathogen breaks out from host cells to invade other cells. Upon stalling, much of his work and samples ended up in the storage freezer.   

Then, in 2012, after genome sequencing technology became much cheaper and more accessible, Arrizabalaga thawed and sequenced mutant strains of the pathogen and was able to pinpoint the mutated protein driving the pathogen’s egress.

His story illustrated the need for patience and showed that past projects can always become relevant again. “Science is really slow, it can be very, very slow. Failures and roadblocks are very normal and are part of that, and sometimes you learn from them, sometimes you don’t,” he said. “Sometimes old projects become new projects.”  

As a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, Arrizabalaga ended up collaborating with a researcher studying benign prostate hyperplasia, a research topic seemingly unrelated to Arrizabalaga’s investigations.

Using male mice as a model, a light-emitting Toxoplasma that Arrizabalaga created was found to be very helpful for studying hyperplasia in the mouse prostate.

This collaboration, which led to National Institutes of Health grants and fruitful research, wouldn’t have happened, Arrizabalaga said, had he remained siloed within his field of microbiology. He encouraged the researchers in attendance to branch out from their fields and seek interest and collaboration across the sciences.   

“My most exciting collaborations have been with people who are completely left field from what I do,” he said.

Arrizabalaga also spoke to the importance of following scientific instincts and taking risks that can lead to surprising insight. He recounted a graduate student in his lab who took a chance focusing her research on an unremarkable protein that turned out to be integral to Toxoplasma mitochondrial biology and replication.

“Willingness to take risks and follow instincts are integral to research. Uncertainty and not knowing are defining aspects of scientific inquiry,” he said.

“As scientists, we’re experts in navigating and harnessing uncertainty.”

Poster awards were presented to several scholars, recognizing outstanding research across several categories:

Basic science

Michael Weaver, MD, PhD
Ophthalmology fellow
“Characterization of Pathological Extracellular Matrix Accumulation in Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy”

Clinical science

Mohamed Jamshid Ubaid, MD
Medicine resident
“Comparative Analysis of In-Hospital Mortality Between TAVR and SAVR Across Diverse Patient Populations: A Nationwide Study”
Mentor: Akash Sharma, MD

Sasha Joseph, MD
Generalist scholar, Department of Family Medicine
“Empowering Nutrition Security: Strategies for Implementing Food Prescriptions for Food-Insecure Older Adults with Multiple Medical Comorbidities”
Mentor: Jill N. Tirabassi, MD, MPH

Education

Ellen Lutnick, MD
Orthopaedics resident
“Does Resident Research Matter in Consideration of Orthopaedic Fellowship Match?”

Quality improvement

Mahmoud Elamin, MD
Medicine resident
“The Association Between Snowfall and Provider Average Length of Stay at ECMC (Erie County Medical Center)”
Mentor: Mohammed H. Hamid, MD

Victoria Haak, MD
Generalist scholar, Department of Pediatrics
“Expanding Pancreatic Autoantibody Testing to Improve Differentiation Between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at Initial Diagnosis”
Mentor: Lucy D. Mastrandrea, MD, PhD

Other posters included: 

Basic research:

Xavier Jean, MD
Department of Surgery
“GLP-1 and its Role in Glycogen Production”

Ayush Srivastava, MD
Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
“Correlation Between Histological Patterns and Molecular Profile of Primary Lung Adenocarcinomas: A Single Institution Study”

Clinical research:

Nicole Favre, MD
Department of Otolaryngology
“Nationwide Adherence to Bell’s Palsy Clinical Practice Guidelines: A 20-Year Retrospective Analysis Using a Large-Scale EHR Database”

Alec Flores, MD
Department of Medicine
“Impact of AASM Accredited Sleep Facilities on Hospitalization Outcomes for Acute Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure in New York State”

Nicholas Frappa
Department of Orthopaedics
“Sedation Strategy and Patient Characteristics Influence Prosthetic Hip Reduction Success”

Shannon Moran, MD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
“Excessive Gestational Weight Gain Does Not Affect Operative Vaginal Delivery Success Rates”

Courtney Olbrich, MD
Department of Family Medicine
“Older Adults’ Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: A Quantitative Analysis”

Mulham Ombada, MBBS
Department of Medicine
“Long Term Outcomes of CAR-T cell Therapy in DLBCL: Systemic Review and Meta-analysis"

Margil Ranpariya, MD
Department of Neurology
“Characteristics of Post-Anoxic Oral Automatism: A Poorly Recognized Phenomenon”

Alexa Reardon, MD
Department of Pediatrics
“Routine Vaccination Rates Between Children with Developmental Disabilities and Their Neurotypical Peers: A Retrospective Cohort Study”

Mattie Rosi-Schumacher, MD
Department of Otolaryngology
“An Investigation of the Timing of External Ear Reconstruction on the Development of Language Impairments in Patients with Microtia”

Rajkumar Selvanayagam, MD
Department of Orthopaedics
“A Retrospective Case Control Study Comparing Long Term Implant Survivorship and All Cause Revision Rate Following Uncemented and Cemented Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty”

Andrew Spitznogle, DO
Department of Medicine
“Tracheal Lipomas and Benign Tracheal Tumors”

Katelyn Donnelly, MD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
“Management of Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Results in Pregnancy”

Blaine Prichard, MD
Department of Family Medicine
“Demographics of Patients on the TriNetX Research Network Using the Fecal Immunochemical Test Versus Colonoscopy for Colorectal Cancer Screening”

Educational research:

Joshua Owczarczak, MD
Department of Medicine
“A Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Curriculum for Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residents”

Quality improvement:

Ethan Borges, DO
Department of Medicine
“Association Between Initiation of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Health Care Utilization and Survival Among COPD Patients”

Anna Gavriluke, MD
Department of Medicine
“Performance of Orthostatic Checks in Elderly Patients Admitted for Falls or as a Result of Falls”

Madelyn Hoffman
Department of Medicine
“The Association Between Snowfall and Provider Average Length of Stay at BGH (Buffalo General Hospital)”

Brady Jensen, MD
Department of Medicine
“Improving Patient-Provider Communication to Optimize Immunosuppressive Medication Management During Acute Infection and Hospitalization: A Quality Improvement Initiative”

Noor Khechen, MD
Department of Family Medicine
“Exploring the Demand for Explainability in Generative AI Tools: A Comparative Study of Resident and Attending Physicians”

Clare Martin, MD
Department of Medicine
“Transition Readiness in Adolescents/Emerging Adults with Type 1 Diabetes”

Aberlee Milliron, MD
Department of Pediatrics
“A Transitional Checklist for Children with Autism”

Saima Mushtaq, MBBS
Department of Pediatrics
“Advancing Skills of Pediatric Residents in Prescription and Administration of Epinephrine Auto-Injectors through Quality Improvement”

Mahmoud Nassar, MD, PhD
Department of Medicine
“Investigating Racial Disparities in Insulin Pump Use Among People with Type 1 Diabetes Across the United States: A Retrospective Multicenter Study”

Robert Ranger, MD
Department of Medicine
“Centralizing Lung Cancer Screening Programs: A Quality Improvement Project”

Diana Rodriguez, MD
Department of Medicine
“‘Code Status...I’m not sure what that is.’ Goals of Care Conservations and Patient Understanding: A Continued Quality Improvement Project”

Vivian Wang, MD
Department of Medicine
“Mock Code Simulation Sessions Improve Resident Comfort in Leading Code Blues: An Educational Quality Improvement Project”