48 Original Projects Featured at Student Research Forum

Published March 22, 2021

story by bill bruton

The research projects, from 48 aspiring physician-scientists, were presented at the 2021 Virtual Medical Student Research Forum.

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4 Projects Highlighted

A faculty panel selected four outstanding projects for special recognition during the event.

First Place

Thomas Listopadzki, Class of 2022

“In Vitro Effect of Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy of Staphylococcal and C. Acnes Isolates”

The goal of Listopadzki’s project was to evaluate the effect of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) using blue light with demeclocycline (DMC) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) on staphylococcal strains isolated from hip and knee periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) and C. acnes strains isolated from shoulder PJI.

Overall, aPDT decreased the bacterial burden of staphylococcal hip and knee PJI isolates and C. acnes shoulder PJI isolates in vitro.

In the future, additional staphylococcal and C. acnes strains will be tested to optimize aPDT conditions, with the ultimate goal of developing in vivo studies.

His mentors/collaborators are: Kathleen K. Boyle, MD, clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics; John K. Crane, MD, PhD, professor of medicine; and Thomas R. Duquin, MD, clinical associate professor of orthopaedics.

Second Place

K. Sophia Park, Class of 2023

“ST6GAL1 Regulates Inflammation in a Human Retinal Endothelial Cell Model of Diabetic Retinopathy”

Park’s study examined the role of ST6GAL1, a sialytransferase that catalyzes α2,6 sialylation on N-glycans, in regulating
inflammation in an in vitro human retinal endothelial cell (HREC) model of diabetic retinopathy (DR).

The study’s results suggest that dysregulated ST6GAL1 activity may contribute to DR pathogenesis by inducing exacerbated inflammatory responses in retinal endothelial cells.

Mentor/collaborators: Joshua Jianxin Wang, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology; Sarah X. Zhang, MD, professor of ophthalmology.

Third Place (tie)

Maria Geba, Class of 2022

“The Existence of Twilight: Medical Approaches to Defining Death, From the Premodern Era to Today”

To paint a more complete picture of the state of physicians’ approaches to defining death from the premodern era to the present day, Geba performed a review of the primary and secondary historical sources related to medical and bioethical approaches to death.

Mentor/collaborator: Alan J. Lesse, MD, associate professor of medicine.

Abigail McLaughlin, Class of 2021

“Gluten-Free Diet in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)”

McLaughlin aimed to determine whether gluten-free diet (GFD) is beneficial for patients with POTS.

All three patients in the study reported significant improvement in POTS symptoms, which correlated with a reduction in total COMPASS 31 scores by 38 percent (from an average of 53.29 points before GFD to an average of 33.57 points after starting GFD).

Large randomized studies are necessary to determine whether GFD is an effective long-term treatment option for patients affected by this chronic and disabling condition.

Mentors/collaborators: Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD, clinical assistant professor of neurology; Jill Brook.

Exploring Cancer, COVID-19 and More

A complete list of participants, their projects and their mentors/collaborators follows:

Student(s) Project Mentors/collaborators
Adil Ali Management and Outcomes of Seroma in Patients After Expander-Implant Breast Reconstruction William J. Magner, PhD
Cemile Ozturk, MD
Jordan Bauer
Joshua Slowinski
Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes of Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty With an Augmented Baseplate Compared to Those Without an Augment Thomas R. Duquin, MD
Lin Feng
Trinithas Boyi Prognosis Incidence and Management of Tall Cell Variant Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Vishal Gupta, MD Wesley L. Hicks Jr., MD
William J. Magner, PhD
Sandra L. Sigurdson, PhD
Greg Brown Spirituality and Recovery at the UBMD Family Medicine Addiction Medicine Clinic Diva Bomgaars, MD
Ryan Bowe, MD
David M. Holmes, MD
Nihkil Satchidanand, PhD
Ellie Camanzo Does Mucoviscosity Indicate Klebsiella Pneumoniae Virulence? Somnath Chakravorty, PhD
Ulrike B. Carlino-MacDonald
Thomas A. Russo, MD
Madison Carlson The Effect of HMUP Mutants on HMUP-Heme Binding in Bradyrzhzobium Japonicum Mark R. O’Brian, PhD
Peipei Wu, PhD
Weilin Chan Non-Genetic Risk Factors and Enrollment Methodology of Diabetic Retinopathy Patient in South India K. Brustoski
S. Han
R.P. Igo Jr., PhD
S.K. Iyengar, PhD
V. Khetan
R. Khan
I. Lains
A. Li
S. Mathavan, PhD
R. Raman
A. Rizza
L. Sobrin, MD
G. Susarla
V.Y. Wang
Patrick Durkin Impaired Adenosine-Mediated Coronary Vasodilation in Swine With Repetitive Pressure Overload-Induced Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction John M. Canty Jr., MD
Beth A. Palka
Brian R. Weil, PhD
Nicole Favre Complications in Pediatric Acute Mastoiditis: HCUP Kid Analysis Michele M. Carr, MD, PhD
Vijay A. Patel, MD
Jamie C. Floss Growth Characteristics of Primary Human Corneal Endothelial Cells (HCEnC) at Ambient and 2.5 Percent Oxygen Christian Mueller
Sangita P. Patel, MD, PhD
Maria Elizabeth Sousa
Alexander Fritz Rationale for Surgical Intervention From Adolescent to Adult Idiopathic Scoliosis: An International Survey of Experts Justice Agyei, MD
Asham Khan, MD
Jean-Marc Lucas
Jennifer Zi Lin Mao
Jeffrey P. Mullin, MD
Tim O’Connor, MD
John Pollina, MD
Alexander R. Vaccaro, MD, PhD
Rishi K. Gupta Effects of Physical and Mental Health on Adherence to a Smoking Cessation Program During Pregnancy Rebecca Luterman
Camilla Niedzwiedz
Maya Owens
Muhaimen Rahman
Xiaozhong Wen, PhD
Kate Zha
Marquessa Henry
Risk Factors for THA Periprosthetic Femur Fractures, Including the Influence of the Anterolateral Approach and Outpatient vs. Inpatient THA, Single Academic Center Experience Thomas R. Duquin, MD
Ellen Lutnick
Alexander J. Macfarlane
Matthew J. Phillips, MD
Nickolas Van Roekel, MD
Alex Hollenberg The Ability of Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Reconstruction to Overcome Lateral Patellar Motion in the Presence of Trochlear Dysplasia: A Cadaveric Biomechanical Study Melissa A Kluczynski
John M. Marzo, MD
Amrit Vinod, MD
Christine Hook Cancer Associated Fibroblasts in Ovarian Cancer and Strategies for Therapeutic CAF Targeting Robert McGray, PhD
Anthony Miliotto
Adekunle O. Odunsi, MD, PhD
JianQiao Huang Repetitive Preload Elevation and Stretch-Induced Stiffening of Non- Ischemic Myocardium in a Porcine Model of Multi-Vessel Coronary Artery Disease John M. Canty Jr., MD
Beth A. Palka
Cody Smith
Allison Warmuth
Brian R. Weil, PhD
Vinesh Jonnala Declining Post-TAVR Pacemaker Rates Associated With Newer Generation Valves and Cusp Overlay Shannon Baldo
Gerald Colern
Rosemary Hansen
Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD
Yan Yatsynovich, MD
Chaitya Joshi Cardiotoxicity in Pediatric Lymphoma Survivors Jacob Adams, MD
Neha Bansal, MD
Kelley Hutchins, DO Steven E. Lipshultz, MD
Andrew Ray, PhD
Katarina Krajacic Upstaging Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer After Robot-Assisted Radical Cystectomy: Insights From the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium
Katherine Lindeman Bacterial Contamination After Positive Pressure Irrigation of Low-Velocity Gunshot Wounds: A Cadaveric Study Robert H. Ablove, MD
Alexander J. Colen, DO
Ellen Lutnick Increasing Number of Authors Per Research Article in Top 10 Orthopedic Journals: A 70-Year Analysis of 106,529 Research Articles Emily J. Curry
Xinning Li
David Sing
Brandon Mariotti
Novel Biomechanical Model for Proximal Junctional Kyphosis
Kelcy McIntyre Translation Initiation as an Antifungal Target John C. Panepinto, PhD
Kelcy McIntyre Gender and Academic Productivity in Otolaryngology Society Leadership Michele M. Carr, MD, PhD
Andrew Kelly
Sonam Mokha Increased Rates of Rehospitalization for Severe Hyperbilirubinemia During Social Distancing Vikash Agrawal, MD
Sara Berkelhamer, MD
Chana Heintz, MD
Christian Mueller Metabolism of Primary Human Corneal Endothelial Cell (HCENC) Cultures Grown at Ambient and 2.5 Percent Oxygen Sangita P. Patel, MD, PhD
Heidi Mueller Accuracy and Safety of Ultrasound-Guided MR Arthroscopy Jason Matuszak, MD
Stephanie Newman Impact of a National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Compliant Multidisciplinary Conference on Treatment Decisions in Patients with Localized Prostate Cancer Ahmed Elsayed
Kurshid Guru, MD
Ahmed Hussein
Umar Iqbal
Zhe Jing
Eric Kauffman
Katarina Krajacic
Michael Kuettal
James Mohler, MD
Blake Peterson
Adenna Samoni
Anxhela Nezha The Effect of Proximal Row Carpectomy and Trapeziectomy on First Ray Stability in Treatment of Basilar Thumb and Wrist Arthrosis. A Cadaveric Study Robert H. Ablove, MD
Grant Mathinson, MD
Blake Peterson Comparison of Changes in eGFR in Ileal Conduit vs. Neobladder Recipients Post Robot Assisted Radical Cystectomy Khurshid Guru, MD
Umar Iqbal
Kristina Powers Otomatch, AAMC and NRMP: How do They Match Up? Comparison of Applicant Data for Individuals Applying to Otolaryngology Residency Anthony Y. Cheung
Justin S. Golub, MD
Jessica R. Levi, MD
Samuel A. Reyes, MD, PhD
Wesley H. Stepp, MD, PhD
Andrew Schwartz Simulating a Novel Human Rhodopsin Retinitis Pigmentosa Gene Mutation in Vitro and Exploring CRISPR/CAS9 as a Potential Therapeutic Agent Jason M. Myers
John M. Sullivan, MD, PhD
Jordan Serotte Delay to Surgery in Geriatric Hip Fracture Patients Mark J. Anders, MD
Elias G. Joseph, MD
Sonja Pavlesen, MD
Melissa Sloley Socio-Psychological Effects of COVID-19 on Health Care Workers Praveen K. Chandrasekharan, MD
Munmun Rawat, MD
Guan Yu, PhD
Charlotte Starling Interstitial Fibrosis in HFpEF Attenuates Diastolic Circumferential Strain and the Transcriptional Response to Left Ventricular Pressure Overload John M. Canty Jr., MD
Brian R. Weil, PhD
Rebeccah F. Young
Christopher M. Sullivan Increased Biofilm Biomass with Co-Colonization of Enterococcus Faecalis and Morganella Morganii Chelsie E. Armbruster, PhD
Kirsten L. Bair
Aimee L. Brauer
Ashley Nicole White
Meagan Sullivan Neutrophil-Driven Suppression of T Cell Activation in the Ovarian Cancer Microenvironment is Characterized by Defects in T Cell Signaling and Metabolism Thejaswini Giridharan
Tiffany Emmons
Brahm H. Segal, MD
Sora Suzuki
Sandra Tambi Jeff Zhang Effects of Inpatient Beta-Blocker Therapy on Patient Outcome in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (aSAH) Peter A. Abdelmalik, MD, PhD
Ryan Hess, MD
Aisha Amir Townes Adaptation of Moraxella Catarrhalis During Persistence in Human Airways in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Charmaine M. Kirkham
Timothy F. Murphy, MD
Melinda Pettigrew
Herve Tettelin
Martina Wade
Brian Unruh Identification of MTRNR2-Like 1 as a Novel Therapeutic Target and Biomarker in Early AMD Josh J. Wang
Sarah X. Zhang, MD
Francesca Viola Parents’ Concerns About Their Child’s Elective Surgery During the COVID- 19 Pandemic Michele Carr, MD, PhD
Jason C. DeGiovanni, MD
Lauren DiNardo
Francesca Viola The Role of Deltoid Contraction on Acromiohumeral Distance: An Ultrasonographic Study Robert H. Ablove, MD
Joseph T. Ferraro, MD
Sonja Pavlesen, MD
Ash Zawerton How do Multiple Myeloma Cells Survive in the Tryptohan-Depleted Bone Marrow Microenvironment? Kelvin P. Lee, MD
Erika Zheng The Mean, Green, Persistent Queen: Overthrowing Antibacterial Resistance in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Katie Rose Boissonneault, PhD
Robert A. Bonomo, MD
Patricia N. Holden
Timothy F. Murphy, MD
Nicholas Smith, PharmD, PhD
Brian T. Tsuji, PharmD