Tuckey earns Outstanding Young Scientist Award at research symposium

Faculty and students participate in the 2024 Infectious Disease and Host Defense Research Symposium at the University of South Alabama.

Kevin Macaluso, Ph.D., professor and chair of 

microbiology and immunology, and Allyson Shea, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, 

present Amanda Tuckey with the award.

Amanda Tuckey, a student in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine, received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award at the 2024 Infectious Disease and Host Defense (IDHD) Research Symposium held May 9 at the University of South Alabama. 

The award recognizes a well-rounded student who exemplifies academic excellence, leadership, and service to the basic medical sciences.  

In total, nine BMS students, including Tuckey, presented research at the second annual IDHD symposium chaired by Allyson Shea, Ph.D., an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology.   

The symposium offered students conference-style presentation experience and a collaborative environment to receive feedback on their research from outside perspectives. 

The symposium presenters and their presentation titles: 

• Rachel Rodenberg – “gd T17 cells are master regulators of the acute antiviral response in HSV-1 infected corneas” 
• Nam Suwanbongkot – “Spotted fever group Rickettsia transmission and dissemination kinetics during infected tick feeding” 
• Meagan Taylor – “Aedes aegypti salivary protein as an inhibitor of IFN-I signaling in human dermal fibroblasts” 
• Killian Brewer – “FPR-mediated signaling rescues neutrophil dysfunction in mut-STAT3 mice, promoting tissue repair in the lung” 
• Shovon Lal Sarkar – “Tissue localization and profiling of bacterial symbionts in the invasive Asian Longhorned Tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis”   
• Amanda Tuckey – “Amyloid-beta regulates the innate immune response to pneumonia 
• Steven Smith – “Increased expression of Amyloid-ꞵ exhibits protective role against influenza A virus infection in a mouse model” 
• Parker Norman – “Interspecies co-feeding transmission of Heartland virus between a native tick species, Amblyomma americanum, and the invasive East Asian Tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis 
• Bailey Hettinger – “Minimum feeding time required for Haemaphysalis longicornis to transmit Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus”

Planning committee members, from left, were Meredith

Moody, program coordinator; students Nam Suwanbongkot, 

Killian Brewer and Meagan Taylor; and Allyson Shea, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of microbiology and immunology.

The keynote speaker was Christopher Paddock, Ph.D., lead of the Diagnostic and Microbiology Team, Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His presentation was titled “Rediscovering rickettsiae,” and he spoke about the history of rickettsial tick-borne diseases and his scientific research. 

Student members of the research symposium planning committee were Killian Brewer, Nam Suwanbongkot, and Meagan Taylor. 

Graduate student earns national scholarship for research

Adeyeye Haastrup presents a poster at the

American Thoracic Society's annual conference. 

Adeyeye Haastrup, a second-year student in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine, recently won several awards related to his research on addressing the bioenergetic crisis in sepsis, a critical determinant of outcomes in this and other severe illnesses.

His abstract was selected for a poster discussion, and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) selected Haastrup as a recipient of the Underrepresented Trainee Development Scholarship, which recognizes trainees who are members of underrepresented minority groups and are selected for the quality of the science in their submitted abstract, among other criteria.

The ATS advances research, patient care, and public health in pulmonary disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders. Founded in 1905 to combat tuberculosis, the ATS has expanded its reach to include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, sepsis, acute respiratory distress, and sleep apnea, among other diseases.

Along with a certificate of achievement, Haastrup was awarded complimentary registration to the ATS 2024 International Conference in San Diego, a one-year ATS membership and $1,000. He was honored during the Diversity Forum at the conference.

“Winning an award at the 2024 ATS International Conference was a humbling experience,” he said, “and I owe these two successes to Dr. Langley, who has been an exceptional mentor in every respect.”

Ray Langley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pharmacology, whose research focuses on sepsis and how to use biostatistical analysis for outcome prediction, said Haastrup is deserving of his recent accolades.

“He has a genuine passion for science and is willing to take on nearly any task. He learns quickly and really takes advantage of constructive criticism,” Langley said. “I feel fortunate that he decided to join my lab last year.”

“Dr. Langley's lab has been an ideal fit for me due to its translational approach, offering real potential for groundbreaking advancements in a field long plagued by failed clinical trials,” he said. “With a background in pharmacy spanning both hospital and community settings, I've long been fascinated by the precarious survival of septic patients, especially those in septic shock.”

Haastrup’s research is primarily focused on the mechanisms of an infection-induced bioenergetics crisis in sepsis-like animal models. With the hypothesis that the bioenergetic molecule nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is depleted, leading to poor outcomes, animals are treated with nicotinamide riboside to see if NAD+ can be replenished and improve signatures of mitochondrial function. 

“Ade utilizes a multi-omics approach where he measures metabolomics and RNA transcriptomics in the animal samples to determine how the bioenergetic pathways are affected by the infection and treatment,” Langley said.

Haastrup credited other mentors, including in the Department of Pharmacology: professors Marie Migaud, Ph.D., and Mark Gillespie, Ph.D., and Justin Roberts, a postdoctoral fellow; and Troy Stevens, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology. 

“Really, I appreciate all the professors at the Whiddon College of Medicine because they have all contributed in more than one way molding me to become a fine scientist,” he said. “Most importantly, I appreciate the supportive environment of the College of Medicine and South Alabama at large.”

In addition, Haastrup won two monetary awards at the 2024 Coastal Business Fair Competition. For his AI Medical Simulations presentation, he tied for third place and received $250, and finished in second place as the College Champion representing the College of Medicine and received $100.

“It was a tremendous honor to be one of the winners of the Coastal Business Fair competition,” he said. “Deep appreciation goes to my teammates Khizir Zabir and Faysal Ahmmed, both graduate students, and Dr. (Kari) Lippert in systems engineering at USA.” 

Basic medical sciences student wins Stanford BioX Award

Megan Patterson, front row, center, is among the attendees of the workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University.

Megan Patterson, center, receives the award from

representatives from Stanford University's SLAC

National Accelerator Laboratory. 

Megan Patterson, a first-year student in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine, was named one of three national recipients of the Stanford BioX Award by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. The $1,000 award included a week-long crystallography course at SLAC, a renowned national basic research laboratory in Menlo Park, California, that has produced at least four Nobel prizes.  

Patterson, who is on the molecular, cell, and cancer biology track in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, said the experience allowed her to learn from experts in the field of X-ray crystallography. One highlight, she said, was that many of the lectures on data processing programs used to decipher the data students collected were taught by the people who created the programs.  

The weeklong camp also allowed her to meet other students and scientists working in the structural biology field. “It was really cool to hear how the techniques we learned at the workshop could be utilized for so many different applications,” Patterson said. “There was a wide range of study topics from the medical sciences to environmental science.” 

During the course, Patterson met Brandon D’Arcy, Ph.D., a graduate of USA’s Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program. D’Arcy conducted postdoctoral research in the lab where Patterson now works under the mentorship of Aishwarya Prakash, Ph.D., an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and pharmacology.

“Brandon’s work as a postdoc laid a lot of the groundwork for what I am now studying with my dissertation project,” she said, “so it was exciting to get to meet him in person for the first time and share stories about the lab and discuss ideas to bring back to my project here.”  

Part of Patterson’s current research aims to decipher the structural and mechanical properties of two key proteins of the DNA mismatch repair pathway, MLH1 and PMS2.  

“My hope is that by figuring out how these proteins function normally compared to when they are mutated, I can shed light on how some individuals with Lynch Syndrome may develop cancer while others may not,” she said.  

Lynch Syndrome, Patterson noted, is a hereditary cancer syndrome where people have a defect in one of four mismatch repair genes, leading to a buildup of mutations, and predisposing them to developing several different forms of cancer. 

M3 Case Symposium set for June 7

Faculty, staff, residents and students at the Whiddon College of Medicine are invited to attend the M3 Case Symposium on Friday, June 7, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the first-floor conference room of the Strada Patient Care Center. 

At the symposium, rising fourth-year medical students present posters outlining interesting, rare or novel case studies observed during their third-year rotations. The event also is an opportunity for students to present independent projects. The case reports are judged based on originality, strength of conclusions, quality of references, overall appearance, organization and topic. 

For more information about the symposium, contact Krisha Amin at kva1521@jagmail.southalabama.edu.

Pediatric patients may rate pain differently than caregivers, study finds

Tyler McDonald, M.D., talks with a

pediatric orthopaedic patient.

When asked to rate their pain, psychological stress and physical function, children recovering from a fracture may give answers that differ from the ones their caregivers provide, according to research conducted at USA Health.

Caregivers may be overestimating the degree to which pain interferes with the children’s well-being, according to research led by Tyler McDonald, M.D., a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at USA Health and an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Whiddon College of Medicine.

McDonald presented the findings at the recent joint meeting of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America and the European Pediatric Orthopedic Society in National Harbor, Maryland. Medical student Cade Smelley, a member of the Class of 2025 at the Whiddon College of Medicine, was co-author on the study.

The researchers reviewed responses from 100 children ages 8 to 17 and their caregivers collected through PROMIS, a patient-reported outcomes measurement information system. The system offers self-report, in which the child answers, and parent-proxy, in which the parent answers on the child’s behalf. “We questioned whether there would be a difference between the self-report and parent-proxy PROMIS results,” McDonald said.

Cade Smelley, Class of 2025

The data showed that in patients ages 8 to 17 with upper extremity fractures who were presenting for initial treatment, caregivers overestimated the children’s pain. To a lesser degree, caregivers overestimated the children’s stress and underestimated physical function, the research found.

McDonald said the findings may have implications for pediatric fracture care. “Clinicians must use caution when choosing whether to administer the self-report or parent-proxy report, as the results between child and caregiver may differ,” McDonald said.