Symposium Showcases Medical Student Research

On November 18, 51 medical students showcased their research and scholarly work at the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (NYITCOM) Fall 2022 Student Research Symposium.

The event, organized by the NYITCOM chapter of the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) under Associate Professor Nathan Thompson, Ph.D., and NYITCOM’s Office of Research, took place in Salten Hall on the Long Island Campus. The annual symposium showcased scholarly work from students who participated in NYITCOM’s many research-focused programs, including the Academic Medicine Scholar Program, the Summer Research Program, the Osteopathic Medicine, D.O./ Medical and Biological Sciences, Ph.D. (D.O./Ph.D.) program, and independent student research.

Throughout the day, students and their faculty mentors shared their research projects in the form of verbal presentations and poster presentations. Research topics ranged from community and global health to the toxicity of cancer treatments, concussions, vitamin deficiencies, and a variety of other subjects.

In the spirit of friendly competition, three research teams were selected by APSA to present their work as keynote podium presenters:

• Steven W. Tseng, mentored by Professor of Biomedical Sciences Qiangrong Liang, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences Satoru Kobayashi, Ph.D., and Research Technician Tamayo Kobayashi, was selected for his project titled, “Elucidating the Differential Roles of AMPK Alpha Subunit Isoforms in Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity.”
• Nicole Maddie, mentored by Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences Maria Alicia Carrillo Sepulveda, Ph.D., BSN., and Li Qiang, Ph.D. (Columbia University pathologist), was selected for her project titled, “PPARg deacetylation mitigates aortic stiffness and aortic perivascular adipose tissue (aPVAT) remodeling in obese male mice.”
• Karan Malik, Ashwin Ragupathi, and Maria Chimarios, mentored by Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences Haotian Zhao, Ph.D., were selected for their project, “Detecting miR-449a in biological fluids using Single Molecule Recognition through Equilibrium Poisson Sampling (SiMREPS).”

“This event was important to spark students’ interest in research and demonstrate the importance of scientific investigations and evidence-based medicine,” said APSA President Maher Kazimi. “As a student organization, APSA aims to help fellow future physicians realize their educational and professional goals and sharpen their scientific communication skills. While it may seem like a small step, presenting research to this target audience allowed students to sharpen their scientific communication abilities—an important skill that they will one day need to effectively educate their future patients.”

Founded in 2003, APSA is a national 501(c)(3) registered organization dedicated to addressing the needs of future physician-scientists with respect to their training career development.