Two researchers took top prizes at the annual USA College of Medicine Research Forum for separate projects related to herpes-related blindness and atherosclerosis.
The research forum was held on Dec. 11, 2020, in a virtual format and included 53 poster presentations.
“The annual research forum allows young researchers at the College of Medicine to share their work, which is important for their research and developing career,” said Sarah Sayner, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology at the USA College of Medicine and co-chair for the event. “Not only does the forum give them that experience, but it also helps to establish new collaboration among the various researchers.”
 |
| Rachel Rodenberg won first place in the graduate student category for her research on herpes stromal keratitis. |
Rodenberg’s research involved a way to identify inflammatory cells in a cornea infected by the herpes simplex virus. “There is a critical need to study this disease because the standard of care has been anti-viral therapy, but there is an emergence of anti-viral resistant mutants leading us to need to discover a new treatment for the disease,” she said.
Among the cells causing inflammation in the cornea are neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cell in the cornea following infection. Rodenberg was able to use single-cell RNA sequencing to identify a subset of neutrophils as a possible target for developing new therapies for herpes-related blindness.
Rodenberg received a $100 gift card. Rodenberg’s work was performed in the lab of Robert A. Barrington, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology. She was assisted by Raymond J. Langley, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology; Robert N. Lausch, Ph.D., professor emeritus in microbiology and immunology; fourth-year medical student Lexie Gibson; and graduate student Grant Daly.
Abigail Boyd took second place in the graduate student category, winning a $75 gift card. Third place and a $50 gift card went to Jennifer Knighten.
First place in the postdoctoral category went to James M. Murphy, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology, for his poster presentation on atherosclerosis. He received a $100 gift card.
 |
James M. Murphy, Ph.D., took first place in the postdoctoral category for his poster presentation on atherosclerosis. |
Murphy sought to inhibit focal adhesion kinase (FAK), which has been shown to play a key role in inflammation of the arteries. He found that using drugs to inhibit FAK reduced atherosclerosis in mice by increasing the outflow of cholesterol from lipid-laden foam cells, which are critical to the progression of the disease. There are no therapies directly targeting foam cells, Murphy said, and more study is needed to follow results over a longer period of time.
His work was performed in the lab of Steve Lim, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He also was assisted by Kyuho Jeong, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the department. Murphy’s research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and an intramural grant from the USA College of Medicine.
Co-chairs for the research forum were Sayner and Luciana Madeira da Silva, Ph.D., research assistant professor of oncologic sciences at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute.