2023 Research Day Highlights Pathology Learners, Faculty

Another successful Pathology Research Day – our department’s 42^nd annual –
was celebrated June 5 in the URMC Kornberg Medical Research Building.

The day included more than 50 poster presentations, in addition to 14 oral presentations delivered by graduate students in the Cell Biology of Disease Ph.D. Program and Pathology residents.

Our keynote speaker was Tami Martino, Ph.D., Distinguished Chair of Molecular Biology and director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Investigations at the University of Guelph. Her talk was titled “Circadian Medicine: Revolutionizing the Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease and Other Major Conditions.”

2023 Research Day Honors

Chair’s Recognition Award: Xiaolan Ou, M.D., Ph.D.

Eric Schenk Teaching Award: Paul Hosking, M.D.

Janet Sparks Teaching Award: Alayna Loiselle, Ph.D., an alumna of our Ph.D. program

The Robert Mooney Award for Outstanding Thesis goes to Dr. H. Mark Kenney, mentored by Dr. Edward Schwarz. Dr. Kenney is a rising fourth-year medical student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D. program) who defended his thesis in May 2022. He plans to apply to residency programs with the goal of pursuing rheumatology-dermatology or dermatopathology as his specialty.

For outstanding scientific presentations, residents Ben Gertsen , M.D. (1^st place), and Alexander Besen, M.D., and Kyla Jorgenson, M.D., M.S. (tie for 2^nd place), as well as graduate students Kiana Chen (mentor Homaira Rahimi, M.D.), Carol Deaton (Gail Johnson, Ph.D.), Zachary Sechrist (mentor Calvin Cole, Ph.D.) and Celia Soto (mentor Benjamin Frisch, Ph.D.) each will receive travel awards.

Additionally, Akash Mahmudul (rotation mentor Zhenqiang Yao, B.Med, Ph.D.) will receive a travel award for his poster in the Cancer category of the of the poster session; Duy Nguyen (mentor Patrick Murphy, Ph.D.) for his poster in the Cell Biology & Genetics category; Sophia Eliseeva (mentor Felix Yarovinsky, M.D.) for her poster in the Hematology & Immunology category and Chen Yu (mentor Roman Eliseev, M.D., Ph.D.) for her poster in the Musculoskeletal and Craniofacial Research category.

The Ph.D. Student Leadership Award was given to Sophia Eliseeva for her work as president of our student council during the 2022-23 academic year. Many thanks to Sophia and the other members of the student council – Emily Whitt (past president) and Vania Lopez-Ruiz (social/communications chair).

Karin Christensen | 6/6/2023