Graduate Research Annual Forum
2024 Graduate Research Annual Forum (GRAF)
The University of Toledo’s Council of Biomedical Graduate Students held its annual Graduate Research Annual Forum on the Health Science Campus Thursday and Friday, March 21 & 22.
Dr. Joshua Starmer, Founder and CEO of the YouTube channel "StatQuest with Josh Starmer," served as the keynote speaker.
He was also be one of the final judges for student oral and poster presentations, which was the central focus of the annual event.
2024 Abstract Book
Schedule
March 21, 2024
- Poster Presentations
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Collier 2409 - Oral Presentations
1:00 pm- 5:30 pm Collier 1200
March 22, 2024
- Final Poster & Oral Presentations
9:00 am- 1:00 pm Collier 1200 - Reception
3:00 pm- 3:30 pm HEB Lobby - Awards & Keynote Address with Dr. Joshua Starmer; Founder and CEO of StatQuest
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm HEB 105
‘Clearly Explained’ video competition
Our Graduate Research Annual Forum keynote speaker, Dr. Josh Starmer, decided this spring to use his honorarium for a fun competition for our graduate
students. Titled "Clearly Explained," the competition asked students to create a video (10 minutes or less) explaining
their research in clear terms for a general audience and non-science people. Dr. Starmer
judged the videos and the results are in. Cash prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd
and 3rd place.
"Overall, I was impressed with all four videos and could not be more pleased with
how this turned out," he shared.
First Place
"Klebsiella pneumoniae: Spontaneous Loss of Mucoidy"
By Emily Kinney
Dr. Starmer commented: "I loved this video for a lot of reasons. First, I thought
the visuals told the story very well and I loved the moments that were very easily
relatable. For example, when Klebsiella pneumoniae says, 'Look, I'm just a sugar…'
And, the song! Bonus points for that for sure!"
Second Place
"Clearly Explained: Skin Exposure"
by Ben French
Dr. Starmer commented: "Great visuals! Very easy to follow."
Tied for 3rd place
"Chromatin remodeling in metabolic syndrome"
by Sachin Aryal
"Small Fish, Big Discoveries: Zebrafish"
by Hemaa Sree Kumar
2024 Winners
Oral Presentations:
- 1st Place:
- Mrunmayee Kandalgaonker, MOME; Kumar Lab “Hypertensive mice are more susceptible to experimental malaria”
- 2nd Place:
- Hemaa Sree Kumar, NND, Zubcevic Lab “Discovery of a new gut bacterial biomarker of developing hypertension with anti-hypertensive properties”
- Deepti Gurung, CAB, Liu Lab “Probing protein dynamics and conformational transitions of 14-3-3 sigma for the treatment of pancreatic cancer”
Poster Presentations:
- 1st Place:
- Brooke Ring, MMI; Mike Lab “Amino acid-mediated control of mucoid phenotype in Klebsiella peneumoniae”
- Nilanjana Saferin, NND, Burkett Lab “Effect of developmental pyrethroid exposure in prairie voles as a model of Neurodevelopmental disorders.”
- 2nd Place:
- Emily Crossley, BIPG; Fedorova Lab “Profound non-randomness in dinucleotide arrangements within ultra-conserved non-coding elements and the human genome”
Previous Years
2023
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and founding member of the Whitehead Institute for biomedical research
2023 Winners
Oral Presentations:
- 1st Place (tie): Ryan Harris
(Ph.D. Candidate, Medical Microbiology & Immunology, PI: Dr. Taylor) “High antioxidant environment in Peromyscus leads to tick-borne flavivirus attenuation” - 1st Place (tie): Sukanya Chakravarty
(Ph.D. Candidate, Medical Microbiology & Immunology, PI: Dr. Chattopadhyay)
“IRF3 inhibits viral inflammation to protect against respiratory virus infection A new anti-inflammatory function of IRF3 in antiviral host defense” - 2nd Place: Iluja Gautam
(Ph.D. Candidate, Medical Microbiology & Immunology, PI: Dr. Worth) “Activated platelets mediate monocyte killing of Klebsiella pneumoniae”
Poster Presentations:
- 1st Place: Kesha Dalal
(Ph.D. Candidate, Molecular Medicine, PI: Dr. Thodeti)
“Regulation of Mitochondrial Phenotype by Mechanosensitive Ion Channel TRPV4 in Endothelial Cells” - 2nd Place: Hemaa Sree Kumar
(Ph.D. Candidate, Neuroscience, PI: Dr. Zubcevic)
“Effect of bacterial short chain fatty acid butyrate on cardiovascular parameters in the zebrafish larvae” - 3rd Place: Matthew Hathaway
(Ph.D. Candidate, Medical Microbiology & Immunology, PI: Dr. Taylor)
“Exploring the role of TRAF6 ubiquitination of NS3 viral protease during tick-borne flavivirus infection”
Poster finalists:
- Upasana Shrestha (Ph.D. Candidate, MMI)
- Giselle Amanda Borges E. Soares (Ph.D. Candidate, Pharmacy)
2022
GRF 2022 Poster Session Finalists and Winners
- Kelly Morgan (First Place)
- Farzaneh Naghavi
- Nicole Bell
- Ryan Harris (Third Place)
- Joshua Breidenbach (Second Place)
GRF 2022 Oral Session Finalists and Winners
- Shumin Fan (Third Place)
- Veani Roshale Fernando (First Place)
- Sayani Bhattacharjee (Second Place)
2022 Abstract Book
2021
GRF 2021 Poster Session Finalists and Winners
- Fathima Dhilhani Mohammed Faleel
- Sukanya Chakravarty
- Smrithi Sugumaran Menon (Second Place)
- Sara Moore (Third Place)
- Mitchell Harberson
- Rachel Golonka (First Place)
GRF 2021 Oral Session Finalists and Winners
- Joshua Breidenbach (First Place Tie)
- Jonnelle Edwards (Second Place)
- Kathryn Becker (First Place Tie)
2021 Abstract Book
2020
Poster
- 1st place: Kathryn Becker
- 2nd place: Jin Chen
- 3rd place: Rachel Golonka
Oral
- 1st place: Gayatri Subramanian
- 2nd place: Sarah Galla
- 3rd place: Neha Nandedkar
Students will be allowed to register for both poster and oral presentations at the link provided below.
- Lunch will only be provided to students that registered beforehand.
- First-year students should REGISTER but select "No presentation" in the options.
- Abstracts do not have to be submitted at the time of registration
***Please review this document for general guidelines regarding oral and poster presentations.
Please contact CouncilGraduateStudents@utoledo.edu or your track representative with any questions.