Trio of Second-Year Students Takes Top Honors at Research Forum
Published February 19, 2016 This content is archived.
story by dirk hoffman
Aspiring physician-scientists showcased 38 original research projects at the 2016 Medical Student Research Forum. The displays showed work they conducted at the University at Buffalo, its partner health care agencies and institutions nationwide.
Overall, 39 medical students shared their projects with peers and faculty members through diverse poster presentations.
Three Class of 2018 students won top prizes for their presentations.
Promotes Understanding of Bench-to-Bedside Link
“This forum provides an excellent interactive opportunity for these dedicated young scientists to present and discuss their results with many of the local experts here at UB,” says Anthony A. Campagnari, PhD, senior associate dean for research and graduate education.
He points out the high level of participation demonstrates that a significant number of medical students understands the importance of research to the practice of medicine.
“By participating in these scientific programs, these medical students have obtained a much better understanding of the essential link between the laboratory bench and the bedside," Campagnari says.
‘‘Their experience in performing medical research will serve them well into their professional careers.”
Top Posters Study COPD, HIPPA, Klebsiella Pneumoniae
A faculty panel selected three outstanding projects for special recognition, all of which were conducted by second-year medical students.
Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, presented certificates to the award-winning students (listed below) during the Jan. 28 event in the atrium of the Biomedical Education Building.
First Place
Remon S. Bebawee, Class of 2018
“Dual IgA Protease Expression By Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae During Carriage In Adults With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)”
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), a common cause of exacerbations in patients with COPD, contain IgA proteases that cleave the mucosal IgA1 antibody, rendering it ineffective for pathogen detection.
Bebawee investigated the IgA protease expression of persistent NTHi strains isolated from longitudinally obtained sputum samples from two participants in the Buffalo VAMC COPD study clinic and found:
- IgA-B2 protease expression of NTHi fluctuates during lower airway persistence of adult COPD patients
- dIgA-A1B2 protease expression is present in persistent strains of NTHi
- Although the igaB2 gene is out-of-frame in dIgA-A1B2 isolates, functional IgA-B2 protease cleavage pattern is still observed
Mentors: Christian P. Ahearn, Charmaine Kirkham and Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine.
Second Place
Victor A. Janmey, Class of 2018
“Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: HIPAA Breach Vulnerabilities In De-Identified Data Sets Via Indirect Identifiers”
Janmey found that indirect, non-HIPAA identifiers pose a significant risk to patient privacy and that there are identifiable use cases such as motor vehicle accidents which can lead to breaches of patient privacy. His research showed that filtering location from these records made it very difficult for this information to lead to unwanted reidentification of de-identified clinical records.
Mentors: Christopher Crowner and Peter L. Elkin, MD, professor of biomedical informatics.
Third Place
Jeff Bulger, Class of 2018
“Evaluation Of A Potential Virulence Factor In Hypervirulent Klebsiella Pneumoniae”
A new, more dangerous strain of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) has emerged after first being described in the Asian Pacific Rim in 1986. Bulger's research team islolated a specific gene it believed could have an important role in the organism’s infection model and that without this gene product, growth of the bacterium would be impaired.
In order to test this hypothesis, they created a mutant strain of the bacterium in which this gene was deficient. By comparing the growth of this mutant with the original strain in various human fluids, they were able to show that there was no significant difference in growth between the two, thus indicating that this gene is not important in these specific environments.
Mentors: Ulrike MacDonald and Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine.
Exploring Anemia, Infections, Breast Cancer and More
A complete list of participants, their projects and mentors follows:
| Student(s) | Project | Mentor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Alvie Ahsan | Primary Care Physicians & Lung Cancer Early Detection: A Qualitative Study | Deborah O. Erwin, PhD Martin C. Mahoney, MD, PhD Anna Mascucci, MPH Frances Saad-Harfouche, MSW Christy Widman, MPH |
| Chelsea Anderson | Prevalence And Consequences Of Anemia In A High-Risk Pediatric Population | Lucy C. Holmes, MD |
| Amy Beattie | Investigating MIS416 As A Vaccine Adjuvant For The Treatment of Ovarian Cancer | AJ Robert McGray, PhD Adekunle O. Odunsi, MD |
| Remon S. Bebawee | Dual IgA Protease Expression By Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae During Carriage In Adults With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) | Christian P. Ahearn Charmaine Kirkham Timothy F. Murphy, MD |
| Caroline Brotzki Anna-Claire Marrone Vincenzo Polsinelli | Vaginal Discharge In Rural Haiti: A Pilot Study From A Mobile Clinic | David M. Holmes, MD |
| Jeff Bulger | Evaluation Of A Potential Virulence Factor In Hypervirulent Klebsiella Pneumoniae | Ulrike MacDonald Thomas A. Russo, MD |
| Bryan E. Bunnell | Zinc Inhibits Multiple Aspects Of The SOS Response In Escherichia Coli | Jacqueline Broome John K. Crane, MD, PhD Jillian F. Escobar |
| X. Tracy Chen | Relationships Between Breastfeeding And Maternal Mental Health | Faye E. Justicia-Linde, MD |
| Natalie Czuczman | Comparison Of Physical Examination Findings In Acute Sport Related Concussion (SRC) And Among Normal Adolescents | John Baker, PhD Andrea Hinds, PhD John J. Leddy, MD Kevin Lesh, MD Barry S. Willer, PhD |
| Rachel Engelberg | Il-21 Elevation Is An Inadequate Marker Of Kawasaki Disease When Assessed In A Cohort Of Febrile Children | Mark D. Hicar, MD, PhD Meghan Martin, MD Haiping Qiao, MBBS Brian Wrotniak, PhD |
| Samantha Frank | Levetiracetam Versus Phenytoin for Seizure Prophylaxis In The Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Population: Effects On Seizure Incidence And Outcome | Simon Morr, MD Renee M. Reynolds, MD |
| Camille A. Gutierrez | Surgically Treated Gastrointestinal Complications Of Graft Versus Host Disease In The Pediatric Population | Mehul V. Raval, MD David H. Rothstein, MD Hannah R. Vester Daniel von Allmen, MD |
| Adrienne Hezghia | Diffuse Axonal Injury In The Corpus Callosum Relates To Long-Term Neuropsychological Functioning And Clinical Outcome In Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients | Habib Benali, PhD Elsa Caron Clara Debarle, MD Sebastien Delphine Damien Galanaud, MD, PhD Blandine Lesimple Melanie Pelegrini-Issac, PhD Vincent Perlbarg, PhD Pascale Pradat-Diehl, MD, PhD Louis Puybasset, MD, PhD |
| Joseph Iluore | Understanding How Infection-Induced Thymic Atrophy Affects Development Of T Regulatory Cells | Sarah J. Blair Richard M. Jin Elizabeth Schiavoni Elizabeth A. Wohlfert, PhD |
| Victor A. Janmey | Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: HIPAA Breach Vulnerabilities In De-Identified Data Sets Via Indirect Identifiers | Christopher Crowner Peter L. Elkin, MD |
| Gaurang Joshi | Factors Affecting Aneurysm Recanalization Following Endovascular Treatment: A Comprehensive Analysis Of 2,376 Patients’ Demographic, Morphological And Computational Fluid Dynamic Parameters | Hui Meng, PhD Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD Ashish Sonig, MD Nicole Varble Tingting Zhuang |
| Rahul Kapoor | Selective Patch Angioplasty And Intraoperative Shunting In Carotid Endarterectomy: A Single Center Review Of 141 Procedures | Alexander I. Evins, MD Mayumi Kubota, MD Joshua Marcus, MD Luigi Rigante, MD Philip E. Stieg, MD, PhD |
| Scott Ketcham | Investigating Scaffold RNA Support Of A Lead Hammerhead Ribozyme Therapeutic For RHO Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa | John M. Sullivan, MD, PhD |
| Irene Lainiotis | Longitudinal Tracking Of Autoantibody Levels In A Pemphigus Vulgaris Patient: Support For A Role Of Anti-Desmoglein1 Autoantibodies As Predictors Of Disease Progression | Nadia Abidi, MD, Gretchen DeLuke, MD Kristina Seiffert-Sinha, MD Animesh A. Sinha, MD, PhD |
| Peter J. Laub | Trends In The Number Of Academic Basic Science And Clinical Departments Among American Medical Schools | Terence R. Flotte, MD Sofia Mueller, MBA |
| Nicholas Lewandowski | Role Of Estrogen Receptor ß And p53 In Triple Negative Breast Cancer Metabolism | Gokul Das, PhD Nishant Gandhi |
| Matthew Loecher | In Vivo Assessment Of The Efficacy Of Chitosan-shRNA Nanoplexes In Therapeutic Influenza A Treatment | Ravi Alluri, MD Bruce A. Davidson, PhD Paul R. Knight III, MD, PhD Barbara Mullan |
| Michael Mezzadri | Evaluation Of Neuroimaging Use Among Elderly Adults Presenting To The Emergency Department With Acute Mental Status Change | Angela Bosinski, PharmD, Bruce Naughton, MD |
| Lisa Mogil | Advanced Neuroimaging In The Clinic: Critical Appraisal Of The Evidence Base (Accepted With Revision) | Avi Fink Michael Lipton, MD, PhD |
| Alexandra J. Morell | Effects Of Amantadine On Corneal Endothelium | Sangita P. Patel, MD, PhD |
| Nicholas Pantano | CRAFFT Detection Of Adolescent Substance Use In The Emergency Department At The Women And Children’s Hospital Of Buffalo (WCHOB) | Kathyrn Bass, MD |
| Priya Patel | Exosomal Survivin Detection Related To Immunotherapeutic Mechanisms In Malignant Glioma | Michael Ciesielski, PhD Robert A. Fenstermaker, MD Cheryl Frank Phillip Galbo |
| Adam Perez | Nil Per Os: To Be Or Not To Be? | Bonnie L. Cass Weidun Alan Guo, MD,PhD, FACS |
| Jonathan Peters | Secondhand Yield Of Tobacco Products: E-Cigarettes, Cigarettes, Cigarillos, And Hookah | Mark J. Travers, PhD Lisa Vogel, MPH |
| Joseph Pittari | Evaluation Of The Use Of Imaging Versus Clinical Exam Alone In The Cervical Spine Clearance Of Isolated Skull Fractures In Patients Less Than Three Years Old: A Retrospective Chart Review Study | Scott M. Bouton, MD Kunal Chadha, MD Renee M. Reynolds, MD Hakeem Shakir, MD |
| Vincenzo Polsinelli | Hypertension And Aging In Rural Haiti: Results From A Preliminary Survey | David M. Holmes, MD Joseph L. Izzo Jr., MD Pierre-Louis Joizil Joseph Morvillo Nikhil Satchidanand, PhD Robert Scagnelli Ranjit Singh, MBBS Kathyrn Williams |
| Chelsea Recor | Optimal Choice Of Vasopressor In Term And Preterm Newborn | Praveen K. Chandrasekharan, MD Sylvia Gugino Justin Helman Carmon Koenigsknecht Satyan Lakshminrusimha, MD Lori Nielsen Munmun Rawat, MD |
| Kaci L. Schiavone | Incidence Of Shoulder Arthroplasty In The State Of Wisconsin | Robert H. Ablove, MD Geoffrey S. Baer, MD, PhD Jonathon L. Tueting, MD |
| Jiho Sohn | Early Life Disruption Of Microbiota In Mice Leads To Long-Lasting Metabolic Consequences | Martin J. Blaser, MD Laura M. Cox, PhD |
| Joseph Tanbakuchi | SR-BI Reduces Atherosclerosis By Controlling Autophagic Flux To Limit Macrophage Foam Cell Formation And Death | MacRae F. Linton, MD Huan Tao, MD, PhD Patricia G. Yancey, PhD |
| Erika Valentine | Allogeneic Cardiosphere-Derived Cells From An Aged Donor Elicit Long-Term Improvements In Left Ventricular Function In A Mini- Swine Model Of Chronic Myocardial Ischemia | John M. Canty, Jr., MD Andrew Goelz Merced M. Leiker Gen Suzuki, MD, PhD Brian R. Weil, PhD |
| Shante White | Analysis Of A Novel Treatment For Orthopedic-Related Infections | Anthony A. Campagnari, PhD Mark Ehrensberger, PhD Lisa Hansen Nicole R. Luke-Marshall, PhD Menachem Tobias |
| Travis E. Wright | Antibiotic Susceptibility Of Propionibacteriumacnes From Sterile Body Sites And Correlation With Hemolysis | K. Keely Boyle, MD John K. Crane, MD, PhD Thomas R. Duquin, MD |