UofL Department of Medicine members shine in return of Research!Louisville

Annual research event made its return in 2021 after COVID-19 pandemic closed it down in 2020
UofL Department of Medicine members shine in return of Research!Louisville

Researchers present their projects at the 2021 Research!Louisville event at the University of Louisville

Members of the University of Louisville Department of Medicine made up for lost time as the annual Research!Louisville event was back for 2021.

Celebrating its 25th year after taking a break in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Research!Louisville is an annual celebration of health-related research aimed at promoting excellence and public awareness in health sciences research in Louisville while also generating additional funding for health sciences research.

A panel of university faculty judges selected the winners of this year's contest from hundreds of entries in the categories of professional/clinical students, basic science grad students, postgraduates and faculty.

Here's a look at finished at or near the top in their respective categories:

Doctoral Basic Science Graduate Student Award

  • 2nd placeAaron Whitt - "Investigating the role of Paraoxonase 2 in non-small cell lung carcinoma"
    Mentor: Chi Li, Ph.D.

Rhonda A. Hoffman Medical Student Award

  • 1st Place: Madelaine Stanback - "Understanding the Metabolic and Transcriptional Processes that Contribute to Pregnancy-Induced Cardiac Growth"
    Mentor: Helen Collins, Ph.D.
  • 3rd Place: Manasaa Kannan - "Development of a testing protocol to evaluate the efficiency of a microfluidic blood plasma preparation device as part of a novel DSC point-of-care diagnostic system"
    Mentor: Nicola Garbett, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow Award

  • 1st Place: Josiah Hardesty - Hepatic cardiolipin biosynthesis is compromised in alcohol-associated hepatitis"
    Mentor: Irina Kirpich, Ph.D.

Research Associate/Research Scientist Award

  • 1st Place: Shah Parag - "Identification of a new gene that blocks breast cancer metastasis"
    Mentor: Levi Beverly, Ph.D.
  • 2nd Place: Jianzhu Luo - "Evaluating the sex-dependent effects of chlordane exposure in the context of fatty liver disease, energy metabolism and endocrine disruption"
    Mentor: Banrida Wahlang, Ph.D.

Research Staff Award

  • Winner: Megan Bezold - "Serological analysis of immunocompromised and healthy patients following mRNA COVID-19"
    Mentor: Krystal Hamorsky, Ph.D.

School of Medicine Clinical Research Fellow Award

  • Winner: Simone Chang - "Targeting Mechanisms of Resistance in Medulloblastoma"
    Mentor: Sucheta Telang, MBBS

Faculty Award in Basic Science

  • Winner: Banrida Wahlang, Ph.D. - "Sex-dependent effects of vinyl chloride on the hepatic transcriptome: implications on toxicant-associated steatohepatitis"

NCI Cancer Education Program Norbert J. Burzynski Award

Undergraduate Student Category

  • 1st Place: Dietrich Sears - "Unique Avenues for the Inhibition of Telomerase Activity in Cancer:  Selective Targeting of Higher Order G-quadruplexes"
    Mentor: John Trent, Ph.D.

Professional Student Category

  • 2nd Place: Jenny Chen - "Deficiency of Antimicrobial Peptide Cathelicidin Attenuated High Fat Diet plus Alcohol-induced Liver Injury through Regulation of FGF21/Adiponectin Signaling and Lipolysis in Adipose Tissue in Mice"
    Mentor: Wenke Feng, Ph.D.
  • 3rd Place: Noela Botaka - "Similar but different: Antiproliferative activity and cancer-selectivity of two copper complexes"
    Mentor: Paula Bates, Ph.D.