Research Day returns in-person with new events, community collaboration

April 13, 2022 — While the Stephen C. O’Connell Center is usually abuzz with Gator fans eager to catch the latest basketball game or cheer on the gymnastics team, the excitement inside the O’Dome last Wednesday was centered on the UF College of Medicine’s first in-person Research Day in two years.

“I’ve actually never presented in person before, only online,” said Aeja Marie Pinto, a fourth-year undergraduate student. “It’s really cool to actually tangibly see people’s posters and be able to talk to people past the Zoom room. An important part of research is seeing other people’s work as well, so it’s very collaboratory. You’re able to walk around and talk to other people.”

The event featured research poster presentations from about 500 College of Medicine students, residents, fellows, faculty and their collaborators, a forum on artificial intelligence and technology and a celebration of K-12 regional science fair winners.

“Research Day at the College of Medicine returned bigger and better than ever before, with a great emphasis on recognizing our early career scientists and trainees, to inspire the next generation of research efforts here at the college,” said Azra Bihorac, M.D., M.S., senior associate dean for research affairs. 

During the event, Bihorac presented the inaugural Dr. Mavis Agbandje-McKenna Distinguished Research Mentoring Award to Sara Burke, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of neuroscience and the associate director of the Cognitive and Aging Memory Center. The award was created in honor of Agbandje-McKenna, an accomplished scientist, professor and director of UF’s Center for Structural Biology who impacted the lives of dozens of trainees who worked under her guidance. Agbandje-McKenna passed away in 2021.

The event also recognized the winners of the 2021 clinical and basic science research awards, Michael Okun, M.D., and Jiang Bian, Ph.D. The 2022 award winners will be announced at an upcoming event.

During the AI and technology forum, a dozen field experts held presentations that introduced the audience to recent advancements in AI, an upcoming curriculum for College of Medicine clinicians and the ethical and privacy considerations that should be addressed when incorporating machine learning into health care.

Bihorac  presented on UF’s Intelligent Critical Care Center, or IC³, a collaboration with Parisa Rashidi, Ph.D., an associate professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, that consists of an autonomous and highly detailed patient-monitoring system driven by AI.

“The data we have from patients can help drive our decisions,” Bihorac said. “It’s a very undiscovered area.”

During Tuesday’s keynote presentation, Marina Sirota, Ph.D., an associate professor at Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at the University of California, San Fransisco, delivered an address on the use of AI to impact medical diagnoses and therapeutics.

Sirota’s lab has used millions of data sets available in the public domain and from the University of California health system to research new biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis, better understand lupus and to find ways to repurpose prescription drugs for conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer’s disease and COVID-19.

“We can use molecular data to come up with a hypohesis and real-world data to validate that hypothesis,” Sirota said. “This is just the beginning of how we can leverage molecular and clinical data to make a difference in helping patients with some of these common ailments.”

Regional winners of the Alachua County Public Schools science fair and students from The Villages Charter School were honored guests at Research Day. Colleen Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., UF College of Medicine dean; David R. Nelson, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health; Mary Jo Koroly, Ph.D., a research associate professor and director for the Center for Pre-Collegiate Education and Training; and Bihorac spoke with the students and their families about their experiences as young scientists and encouraged them to continue being curious about science and research.

Junior Faculty:

Linchun Jin, M.D., Ph.D., assistant scientist, department of neurosurgery

Toxicology Study of IL-8 Receptor-Modified CD70 CAR T Cells for Clinical Trials

Lauren Douma, Ph.D., research assistant and professor, department of biochemistry and molecular biology

Kidney-Specific KO of the Circadian Clock Protein PER1 Alters Renal Sodium Handling and Kidney/Adrenal Gene Expression

MD/PA: Abeer Dagra, medical student, department of neuroscience

α-Synuclein-Induced Dysregulation of Neuronal Activity Contributes to Murine Dopamine Neuron Vulnerability

Pre/Postdoc: Shu Guo, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate, department of molecular genetics and microbiology

Nuclear Export Inhibitor KPT-350/BIIB100 for Therapy of C9orf72 ALS/FTD

Resident/Fellow: Brian Fazzone, M.D., resident physician, department of surgery

Influences of Renal Insufficiency and Ischemia on Mitochondrial Bioenergetics and Limb Dysfunction in a Novel Murine Iliac Arteriovenous Fistula Model

Junior Faculty: Kimberly Newsom, Ph.D., M.B., clinical assistant professor, department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine

High-Throughput COVID-19 Testing Keeps UF Open

MD/PA: Yerin “Stella” Jeon, medical student, department of emergency medicine

Assessing Epidemiology of Sepsis Admissions and Readmissions in an Urban Teaching Hospital

Pre/Postdoc: Richard Guerrero & Maria Mavrodieva, students, department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics

Telehealth Implementation in Response to COVID-19: Perspectives of Clinicians and Health System Leaders

Resident/Fellow: Cyndi Valdes, M.D., resident physician, department of pediatrics

Impact of Nutritional Status on Total Brain Tissue Volumes of Preterm Infants

Junior Faculty: Tezcan Ozrazgat-Baslanti, Ph.D., research assistant professor, department of medicine

Race-Agnostic Computable Phenotype for Kidney Health in Adult Hospitalized Patients

MD/PA: Sina Aghili-Mehrizi, medical student, department of neurology

A New Technique for Implanting Deep Brain Stimulation Leads: “Macro off the Micro”

Pre/Postdoc: Jingxi Weng, Ph.D. candidate, department of radiation oncology, Medical Physics Graduate Program

Deep-Learning Based Cine-MRI Image Prediction for Abdomen Organ Motion

Resident/Fellow: Julia Eidelman, D.O., fellow, department of anesthesiology

A More Accurate Denervation for Facet Joint Pain: A Case Report on Endoscopic Rhizotomy

Photos by Jesse S. Jones