Marshall University biomedical students shine at national spring meetings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Contact: Leah C. Payne, Director of Public Affairs, Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, 304-691-1713

Marshall University biomedical students shine at national spring meetings

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Undergraduate and graduate students with the biomedical sciences program at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine were selected to exhibit a variety of poster presentations at the 2017 Experimental Biology (EB) conference in Chicago last month, as well as several other highly regarded annual meetings.

The following undergraduate students presented their posters at the EB conference:

  • Austin Akers (Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., mentor)
    “The choline acetyltransferase inhibitor BW813U suppresses the growth of lung adenocarcinoma from smokers”
  • Chad A. Meadows (Maria A. Serrat, Ph.D., mentor)
    “The TALLYHO Mouse as a Model of Obesity-Induced Linear Growth Acceleration”
  • Nick Nolan (Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Capsaicin suppresses the metastasis of human NSCLC in vivo”
  • Abbagael Seidler (Nalini  Santanam, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Non-coding RNA Editing Involved in Adipose Dysfunction during Aging”
  • Jessica Seidler (Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., mentor)

“Non-pungent long chain capsaicin-analogs arvanil and olvanil display better anti-invasive activity than capsaicin in human small cell lung cancers”

Meadows was the first place award winner in the American Association of Anatomists Undergraduate Poster Competition.

Graduate students who presented poster or platform talks included:

  • Xiaoyu Cui , doctoral student  ( Zijian Xie, Ph.D. , mentor)

“Regulation of Aerobic Glycolysis by Na/K-ATPase”

  • Jamie R. Friedman, doctoral student  (Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Capsaicin Synergizes with Camptothecin to show Enhanced Apoptoctic Activity in Small Cell Lung Cancer”
  • Laura C. Kutz, doctoral candidate (Zijian Xie, Ph.D. and Sandrine Pierre, Ph.D., co-mentors)
    “Isoform-Specific Role of Na/K-ATPase α1 in Skeletal Muscle Growth and Performance”
  • Jackie K. Parkman, doctoral candidate (Jung Han Kim, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Increased Inflammation and adipogenesis in congenic mice with QTL linked to obesity”
  • Holly L. Racine, doctoral candidate (Maria A. Serrat, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Inhibiting IGF1 Activity in the Proximal Tibial Growth Plate Attenuates the Bone-Lengthening Effects of Temperature in Hindlimbs of Growing Mice”
  • Xiaoliang Wang, doctoral student (Zijian Xie, Ph.D., mentor)
    “Na/K-ATPase α1 Isoform as a Critical Signal Integrator in Embryonic Development”    

In addition to presenting her poster, Laura Kutz was awarded the Robert Gunn Student Award of the American Physiological Society--Cell and Molecular Physiology Section.  Holly Racine was a platform award finalist in the American Association of Anatomists podium competition, placing her in the top six of 109 applicants. 

Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine medical student Zachary Robateau, M.S., whose mentor is Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., also presented a poster, “Memantine, the Dual A7-nAChR/NMDAR antagoinist displays potent anti angiogenic activity in lung cancer.”

Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (MIIR) postdoctoral fellow, Pauline Marck, Ph.D., presented “Cardiac structure and function in mice with a cardiomyocyte-specific knockout of Na+/K+-ATPase & α1-isoform.”  She also received the 2017 American Physiological Society--Cell and Molecular Physiology Section Post-Doctoral Research Recognition Award.

Monica Valentovic, Ph.D., professor in the department of biomedical sciences, chaired a session at the EB meeting titled “In Utero and Neonatal Exposure to Environmental Agents.”  A former OB/GYN resident at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Jesse Cottrell, M.D., was also a speaker in this symposium.

Valentovic will become chair of the Division of Toxicology in the American Society of Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASPET), which is part of EB, effective June 1. She will be chair for a two-year period.

Several students received travel awards for EB or the Society of Toxicology (SOT) conference, which took place in Baltimore in March. They included:

  • Jamie Friedman, MU Advance Path Forward travel grant
  • Chad Meadows, American Association of Anatomists travel award
  • Rachel Murphy, Society of Toxicology (SOT) Graduate Student travel award
  • Holly Racine, American Association of Anatomists travel award
  • Jessica Seidler, NASA Undergraduate Fellowship travel grant

In other spring conference news, Maria Serrat, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences, presented a poster at the Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, titled “Heat Enhanced Bone Elongation in Growth Plates is IGF-I Dependent.” Co-authors include doctoral candidate Holly L. Racine, undergraduate Chad Meadows, and research instructor Gabriela Ion, Ph.D.

Kristeena Ray Wright, a 2017 biomedical sciences doctoral graduate whose mentor is Nalini Santanam, Ph.D., presented last week in Vancouver at the 13th World Congress on Endometriosis.  Wright was invited to present an oral lecture, “Oxidation-sensitive microRNAs in endometriosis-associated pain.” Santanam also presented.

The following three presentations were made by students and faculty at the SOT meeting in March in Baltimore.

  • “Resveratrol Protection of Mitochondria to Cisplatin Toxicity in HK-2, a Human Proximal Tubular Epithelial Cell Line.” Authors are Monica Valentovic, Ph.D.; Katie Brown, M.S., lab technician; A. Benja Lamyaithong, M.S., first-year medical student; and undergraduate student Mason Dial.
  • “Anti-Viral Agent Tenofovir Causes Mitochondrial Damage and Oxidative Stress in HK-2 Cells.” Authors are Rachel A. Murphy, Ph.D. candidate; Daniel Rodriguez De Anda, a 2016 Summer Research Internship for Minority Students participant; Katie Brown; and Monica Valentovic, Ph.D.
  • “Metabolism of 3,5-Dichloroaniline in Isolated Renal Cortical Cells (IRCC) from Male Fischer 344 Rats.”  Authors are recent biomedical science doctoral graduate Christopher R. Racine; Connor Tyree, an undergraduate; and faculty members Monica Valentovic, Ph.D., and Gary O. Rankin, Ph.D., chair of the department of biomedical sciences.

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Date Posted: Wednesday, May 24, 2017