Welcome to the 37th Annual MD-PhD National Student Conference!
Copper Mountain Resort, July 8th-10th, 2022
Thank You To Our Sponsors:
CU Division of Medical Oncology, CU Cancer Center, CU Department of Radiation Oncology, CU Department of Medicine
CU Departments of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, Physical Medicine & Rehab, and Radiology.
Center for Bioengineering and Bio-Techne, Genetech, FAER
Dr. Catherine Bollard, MD, MBChB:
Dr. Bollard received her medical degree at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is board certified both in pediatrics and hematology. She worked in New Zealand and London, England, before moving to Houston, Texas, in 2000 where she was a Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the Director of the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center Pediatric Lymphoma Program. In August 2013, she was recruited to Washington, DC, to join Children’s National Health System and The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dr. Bollard is currently the Bosworth Chair for Cancer Biology, the Director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, and the Director of the Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy (CETI) at Children’s National Health System. She is a Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University and the Associate Center Director for Translational Research and Innovation at the GW Cancer Center. Dr. Bollard is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), is a past president of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and is the current President of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).
Dr. Bollard was a member of the Cellular, Tissues, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2015 to 2019 and in 2019 she became a member of the Frederick National Laboratory Advisory Committee (FNLAC) for the NIH and an ad hoc member of the Pediatric Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) for the FDA. She was an associate editor for the journal Blood from 2014-2021 and is currently Editor in Chief of Blood Advances. She has >200 peer reviewed publications and has been independently NIH funded for over a decade. Her bench and translational research focuses on improving outcomes for patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and on the development of novel cell therapies for cancer and virus-associated diseases.
Dr. Craig C. Mello, PhD:
Dr. Craig C. Mello received his B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from Brown University in 1982 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990. From 1990 to 1994 he conducted postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. He has been a member of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School faculty since 1995, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator since 2000. His pioneering research on RNAi, in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Fire, has been recognized with numerous awards culminating with the prestigious 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Dr. Peter Basser, PhD, SM:
Dr. Peter Basser received his A.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and his postdoctoral training in Bioengineering within the NIH IRP. In 1998, he became a Senior Investigator, and Chief of the new Section on Tissue Biophysics and Biomimetics (STBB), NICHD. From 2009 through 2015, he additionally served as Director of the Program on Pediatric Imaging and Tissue Sciences. He was then appointed to be the Associate Scientific Director for Imaging and Genomic Integrity within the NICHD IRP, a position he currently holds.
Dr. Basser is widely known for the invention, development, and clinical implementation of MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), diffusion tensor "streamline tractography," and other quantitative MRI methods for performing in vivo MRI histology or "microstructure imaging". These include CHARMED and AxCaliber MRI, which measure the mean axon diameter and axon diameter distribution, respectively, within white matter pathways, and various double Pulsed-Field Gradient (dPFG) or double wave-vector MRI methods, which are now widely used to elucidate distinct microstructural features of both gray and white matter in the brain. Within the area of neurotechnology, he made seminal contributions to our understanding of the physical underpinnings of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and its application in treating depression. He also wrote the first paper describing a new technique for delivering chemotherapeutic agents, which is now called "convection enhanced delivery" or CED.
Dr. Basser's notable awards and achievements include induction into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and receipt of the Gold Medal from the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), as well as the Eduard Rhein Foundation Technology Award.
Dr. Yasmine Belkaid, PhD, MS:
Dr. Yasmine Belkaid is a Distinguished Investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health (Bethesda). She obtained her Master's in Biochemistry at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, Algeria, and her Ph.D. from Pasteur Institute in France. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Health (Bethesda) on immune regulation during infection, she started her research program at the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati. In 2005, she joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and was appointed senior scientist in 2008. Her laboratory explores fundamental mechanisms that regulate tissue homeostasis and host immune responses and uncovered key roles for the microbiota and dietary factors in the control of immunity and protection against pathogens. Dr. Belkaid is the co-director of the trans-NIH Center for Human immunology and is the founder and Director of the NIAID Microbiome program. Dr. Belkaid is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine and recipient of numerous awards including the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, and the Emil von Behring Prize, the Sanofi-Institute Pasteur Award, and the Robert Koch Award.
Dr. Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD:
More coming soon!
2:00 - 8:00 PM General Registration Open
Kokopelli's Trail
5:30 - 7:00 PM Dinner
Bighorn Room A
6:00 - 7:00 PM Keynote Address
Bighorn Room A
Immunology - Dr. Yasmine Belkaid, PhD
7:00 - 8:00 PM Student Poster Session #1
Kokopelli's Trail
8:00 - 9:00 PM Social Hour with Cash bar
Kokopelli's Trail
8:00 - 11:00 AM Late Registration
Kokopelli's Trail
8:00 - 9:00 AM Breakfast
Bighorn Room A
9:00 - 10:00 AM Oral Presentation #1
Cancer Biology Ptarmigan A2
Bioengineering Structural Biology Ptarmigan C2
10:00 - 10:15 AM Coffee Break
Bighorn Room A
10:15 - 11:15AM Oral Presentation #2
Neuroscience Ptarmigan A2
Molecular and Cellular Biology Ptarmigan C2
11:30 - 12:30 PM Keynote Address
Bighorn Room A
Neuroscience - Dr. Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD
12:45 - 1:45 PM Lunch & PSTP Residency Panel
Bighorn Room A
1:45 - 2:45 PM Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Panel
Bighorn Room A
2:45 - 3:00 PM Coffee and Snack Break
Bighorn Room A
3:00 - 4:00 PM PSTP Showcase
Bighorn Room A
4:00 - 5:00 PM Poster Session #2
Kokopelli Trail
5:30 - 7:00 PM Dinner & Keynote Address
Bighorn Ballroom
Molecular Biology - Dr. Craig Mello, PhD
7:00 - 10:00 PM Dinner Reception
Grand Hall - Copper Station
8:00 - 9:30 AM Breakfast Buffet
Bighorn Room A
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Sunday Funday Activities
Refer to sign-up sheets
12:00 - 1:30 PM Lunch & Career Panel
Bighorn Room A
1:30 - 2:30 PM Keynote Address
Bighorn Ballroom
Biomedical Engineering - Dr. Peter Basser, PhD
2:30 - 3:30 PM Oral Presentation #3
General Medicine I Ptarmigan A2
General Medicine II Ptarmigan C2
3:30 - 4:00 PM Coffee and Snack Break
Bighorn Room A
4:00 - 5:00 PM Oral Presentation #4
Immunology Ptarmigan A2
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Ptarmigan C2
5:00 - 6:00 PM Breakout Sessions
Research Ethics Ptarmigan A2
Scientific Writing Ptarmigan C2
6:00 - 6:30 PM Break
6:30 - 8:00 PM Dinner and Keynote Address
Bighorn Ballroom
Cancer Biology - Dr. Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRCPA
8:00 PM Closing Remarks & Awards
Bighorn Room A
Bioengineering:
Oluwamayokun Oshinowo:
Single platelet force as a biophysical biomarker for clinical bleeding severity
Bojing Blair Jia:
A spatial genome aligner for multiplexed DNA-FISH
Kaylie Cullison:
Weekly Dynamics of Glioblastoma During Treatment on MRI-Linac
Jordan Morningstar:
Mitral valve prolapse induces regionalized left ventricular fibrosis
Cancer Biology:
Mary Bedard:
A single cell transcriptome atlas of the HPV16-infected squamous epithelium identifies a novel epithelial subpopulation implicated in cancer
Anthony Restaino:
Electro-physiologically active tumor microenvironment promotes cancer progression
Francisco Neal:
The tumor suppressor BRCA2 safeguards genome integrity through two distinct DNA binding domains
Kyra T Newmaster:
Predicting CNS Tumor MMP9 Methylation Status Using MRI Features
Neuroscience:
Lincoln Wurtz:
The Dynamic Role of Kallikrein 6 in Myelination
Sarah Zych:
Divergent properties and independent regulation of striatal dopamine and GABA co-transmission
Tyrone Despenza:
Therapeutic targeting of mTOR in a genetic subtype of congenital hydrocephalus
Akansha Jain:
Modulation of cellular ATP levels as a potential therapeutic strategy for Parkinson’s disease
Molecular Biology:
Andrea Toth:
Understanding and preventing perinatal lung injury in a rhesus macaque model of chorioamnionitis
Kelsey Nolden:
A novel Fis1 inhibitor reverses diabetic endothelial dysfunction in human resistance arteries
Juan Colazo:
Albumin-hitchhiking MMP13 siRNA (siMMP13<(EG18L)2) for the Treatment of Rheumatic Disease
Javier Sierra Pagan:
ETV2 functions as a pioneer transcription factor that regulates endothelial lineage development and reprogramming
Immunology:
Jacqueline Turner:
Lysophosphatidic acid rewires CD8 T cell metabolism and anti-tumor immunity
Peter Dimitrion:
Dissecting peripheral and cutaneous immunological dysregulation in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa
Sara Bolivar Wagers:
Prevention of acute graft-versus-host disease using an orthogonal IL-2/IL-2Rβ system to selectively expand regulatory T cells in vivo
Jonathan Liang:
Saturated fatty acid activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome depends more strongly on JNK activation than on ROS
Microbiology:
Yentli E. Soto Albrecht:
Non-pathogenic variation in mitochondrial DNA modulates murine SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis
Umaru Barrie:
ERK1/2 Activation in Macrophages is Necessary for Efficient Leishmania amazonensis Internalization and Pathogenesis
Soo hun Yoon:
Uncovering the role of ubiquitin-like modulation of 3’3’-cGAMP signaling in Vibrio cholerae El tor
Hannah Bell:
The Function of Type Three Secretion System Protein VopZZ
General Medicine I:
Markus Havell:
Utilizing electronic health records to identify high risk ANA-positive patients that may progress to systemic lupus erythematosus
Simone Herzberg:
Obesity and Rotator Cuff Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Al Smith:
Quantifying the Need for Global Emergency Neurosurgical Intervention
Lily Nguyen:
Combination epigenetic and PARP inhibitor therapies can uncover transposable elements with gene regulatory functions in ovarian cancer cells
General Medicine II:
Jared Beyersdorf:
Robust, Durable Gene Activation In Vivo via mRNA-Encoded Activators
Kyle Wosiard:
Executive Control Network Resting State fMRI Functional Connectivity in Cocaine Dependant Subjects
Mary Adeyeye:
Paradoxical Effect of Frizzled2-Fc on Bone Mass for the Treatment of Osteogenesis Imperfecta
Maryknoll Linscott:
PIK3CA and cMYC promote the expansion of distinct Ras-initiated, long-lived premalignant clones in a multistage murine breast cancer model
Dr. Olujimi Ajijola, MD, PhD:
Dr. Ajijola completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, and received his medical degree from Duke University. He went on to the Massachusetts General Hospital for residency training in internal medicine, and completed clinical fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and cardiac electrophysiology at UCLA. He received a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology at UCLA, as part of the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program. He is interested in novel approaches for cardiac arrhythmias, and performs invasive cardiac electrophysiological procedures.
In addition to the NIH Director’s New Innovator award, he is a recipient of the Jeremiah Stamler Cardiovascular Research Award, an A. P. Giannini Foundation post-doctoral award, and a Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He is a member of the New Voices program of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
He directs the Neurocardiology Research Program and Clinical Autonomic Testing Laboratory at UCLA. He co-directs the NIH-funded UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, serves on the leadership team of the UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program, and directs the UCLA internal medicine residency physician-scientist training program (ProSTAR-PSTP).
Yentli Soto Albrecht:
Yentli Soto Albrecht is a 4th year MD-PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (Penn). She earned a degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University, and worked at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard before coming to Penn. She is undertaking her thesis in the Douglas Wallace lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she studies the role of mitochondria in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Specifically, she studies aspects of mitochondrial function that serve to limit SARS-CoV-2 replication and how mitochondrial background may contribute to COVID-19 severity. She is rising president of the American Physician Scientists Association, where she enjoys working with a passionate team to support other trainees and increase the diversity of the physician-scientist workforce. She hopes to fight emerging viral infections globally with science and medicine throughout her physician-scientist career.
Dr Talia Swartz, MD, PhD:
Talia H. Swartz, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Medical Education. She is a physician scientist, MD-PhD graduate from the Mount Sinai MSTP in 2008. She completed internal medicine research track residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital and then Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Mount Sinai hospital. She joined the laboratory of Benjamin Chen studying the biology that underlies chronic HIV infection which led to a mentored career award (K08) and current runs a research laboratory that investigates the signaling that mediates inflammatory signaling in response to infection and aims to develop novel treatment paradigms to reduce the morbidity and mortality of HIV-1 disease and COVID-19. Her clinical practice is focused on care for people with HIV and, more recently, COVID-19. Dr. Swartz is Co-Director of the MD/PhD Program and Associate Dean for MD/PhD Education. She has been deeply committed to supporting the training of physician-scientists through the recruitment and support of diverse trainees who are navigating dual training in medicine and biomedical science. She is involved in innovative curricular development, outreach, and student support, both at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and through the AAMC GREAT Group MD/PhD Section Communications Committee where she has been developing resources to make physician-scientist training available to a more diverse group of future trainees. She is also Director of Graduate Research and Education of the new Center for Antiracism in Practice at Mount Sinai, which is serving to identify the insidious and pervasive nature that structural racism impacts graduate education and is working to form a Community of Practice to dismantle racism and create a more inclusive culture for physician-scientist training.
Dr. Tarik Walker
More information coming soon!
Dr. Mary Allen, MD: “Surviving the ethical swamps of scientific research”
Dr. Allen is a Research Assistant Professor and RCR coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her current research revolves around transcription factor function in Trisomy 21, and her lab uses techniques that range from molecular biology to machine learning. When Dr. Allen was a graduate student, the graduate student in her lab discovered likely falsification of data in grants submitted by their PI. This event was a turning point in Dr. Allen’s career. Dr. Allen will speak of her views on responsible conduct of research before, during, and after this event. Dr. Allen, and the other students in her graduate school lab, have been written about in several books on research misconduct, and RCR instructors often use their situation as a case study in the training of students in RCR.
Dr. Brianne Barker, PhD:
Dr. Brianne Barker is an Associate Professor of Biology at Drew University, where she has taught undergraduate courses and performed research since 2013. Prior to her work at Drew, Dr. Barker earned a B.S. in Biology from Duke University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University, where she examined DNA vaccine-elicited immune responses against HIV and CD8 T cell memory. She then completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examining innate immune responses in bacterial, viral, and inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Barker's teaching interests focus on Immunology, Virology, Emerging Infectious Disease, and Microbiology. Her research laboratory focuses on understanding innate immune responses to viral infection and vaccines. Dr. Barker also applies her science and education training to science communication, particularly throughout the pandemic, working with the American Society for Virology on various pandemic communication initiatives and co-hosting two podcasts: "This Week in Virology" and "Immune".
Dr. Benjamin Young, MD, PhD: Global & Public Health
Dr. Benjamin Young is the Head of Global Medical Directors of ViiV Healthcare where he supports clinical education, medical research, and public health initiatives around the world. Since 2017, Dr. Young has been a principal of ViiV’s Positive Perspective Study, one of the world’s largest studies of outcomes reported by people living with HIV. From 2012 to 2018, Dr. Young was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, where he oversaw capacity-building programs and coordinated evidence-informed policies with the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
With over 20 years of experience in HIV medicine, Dr. Young was a Denver, Colorado-based clinician and clinical researcher. He was Co-Principal Investigator in the CDC HIV Outpatient Study from 1998 to 2018 and worked in Central Asia for two years as Head of Medical Affairs for Health Connections International, a Dutch non-governmental organization. Having authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, Dr. Young has shared his HIV expertise through worldwide education programs where he has trained healthcare professionals and community groups in over 50 countries, with a special focus on Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Mexico.
Dr. Young received his MD in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1990 at the University of Colorado. He completed post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.
Dr. Jay Vyas, MD, PhD: Graduate Medical Education and Administration.
Jatin (Jay) M. Vyas is an Associate Professor in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He attended the University of Texas at Austin in Plan II, a liberal arts honors program. He graduated with Special Honors from the University. From UT, he attended Baylor College of Medicine in their Medical Scientist Training Program where Jay received his PhD in 1994 and MD in 1996. Upon completion of his MD, Jay moved to Boston to complete his medical internship and residency in internal medicine in the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his fellowship in Infectious Diseases in the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital program. He then served as the chief resident in medicine for 18 months. Following a period of extended post-doctoral research training in the Harvard Department of Pathology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Dr. Vyas joined the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2007. Dr. Vyas is internationally recognized for his work in fungal immunology, investigating the how our body responds to fungal pathogens. In 2014, Jatin was named the tenth Program Director of the MGH Department of Medicine Residency Program, supervising 207 interns and residents. As an NIH-funded investigator with interests in basic scientific discovery, Dr. Vyas provides a unique perspective to the medical housestaff. He is married and has two children, aged 22 and 19 and resides in Milton, MA.
Dr. Leonard (Lenny) Dragone, MD, PhD: Industry
Leonard (Lenny) Dragone, MD PhD, is Chief Medical Officer at Sonoma Biotherapeutics. He joined Sonoma Bio from Janssen Biopharma where he served as the Vice President for Early Clinical Development as well as the interim Head of Data Sciences for Infectious Diseases. He was responsible for advancing therapeutic candidates from pre-IND enabling studies through Phase 1 to Phase 2b clinical trials as well as identifying high-impact data science studies. Lenny oversaw the development teams and created an infrastructure that bridged discovery to early development enabling collaboration and the creation of new patient-based studies to inform therapeutics in development for respiratory and chronic hepatitis B infections.
Lenny previously served as Senior Director of Experimental Medicine and Translational Pharmacology at Merck Research Laboratories in SSF. As clinical site lead and therapeutic area lead for Autoimmunity, Inflammation and Ophthalmology (AIO), he was responsible for early clinical development of the AIO pipeline through Phase 2a, contributing to pipeline strategy and prioritization. He also created a new experimental medicine clinical trials group functioning across the Merck network, which enabled experimental medicine studies across cardiovascular, metabolic, autoimmunity and inflammation indications. Prior to this, Lenny was a Medical Director in early clinical development at Genentech, leading and coordinating multiple cross-functional project teams with emphasis on IND filing and achieving proof-of-concept through Ph.2b for indications including SLE, RA, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and influenza. Additionally, he created and ran an integrated clinical informatics team that worked at the interface of research, biomarker discovery and clinical investigation.
Lenny received his MD and PhD from the University of Rochester, before completing his Pediatric residency and Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship training at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He then ran his own NIH-funded laboratory publishing over 30 peer-reviewed publications and advanced up the academic ranks to Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at the University of Colorado and National Jewish Health in Denver Colorado. Lenny continues to stay clinically active as a Volunteer Associate Professor of Pediatric Rheumatology at UCSF seeing patients in the pediatric rheumatology fellow’s clinic.
Dr. Craig Forester, MD, PhD: Junior MD/PhD faculty
![Forester_Craig_03[77]](/images/librariesprovider145/default-album/forester_craig_03-77.jpg?sfvrsn=e77c97ba_0&MaxWidth=250&MaxHeight=250&ScaleUp=false&Quality=High&Method=ResizeFitToAreaArguments&Signature=E25D60FC931B787BFD2A0375FF43B00B101B7046 "Forester_Craig_03[77]")
Craig Forester, MD, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado-Anschutz and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. He completed his MD, PhD at the University of Utah before heading to Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center for training in Pediatrics where he became interested pediatric bone marrow failure. He then moved to the University of California-San Francisco for fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT where he developed techniques to study nascent proteomics and translational control in early hematopoiesis in the lab of Davide Ruggero. Currently, at the University of Colorado, Dr. Foresterstudies the intersection between epitranscriptomics and RNA structure in translation specificity and attends in Pediatric Hematology.
Dr. Brianne Barker, PhD: Undergraduate Education
Dr. Brianne Barker is an Associate Professor of Biology at Drew University, where she has taught undergraduate courses and performed research since 2013. Prior to her work at Drew, Dr. Barker earned a B.S. in Biology from Duke University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University, where she examined DNA vaccine-elicited immune responses against HIV and CD8 T cell memory. She then completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examining innate immune responses in bacterial, viral, and inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Barker's teaching interests focus on Immunology, Virology, Emerging Infectious Disease, and Microbiology. Her research laboratory focuses on understanding innate immune responses to viral infection and vaccines. Dr. Barker also applies her science and education training to science communication, particularly throughout the pandemic, working with the American Society for Virology on various pandemic communication initiatives and co-hosting two podcasts: "This Week in Virology" and "Immune".