CMI Annual Research & Innovation Summit 2018

On August 13, the Comparative Medicine Institute held its Third Annual Research & Innovation Summit in the Talley Center.  This yearly meeting gathered all of the entities of the CMI:  faculty members, associate members, SIRI undergraduates, donors and invited guests.

The program included speakers from each of our three units, Emerging and Infectious Diseases, Functional Tissue Engineering and Translational Pharmacology and Physiology.  The Associate Directors from each program started their sections by summarizing their accomplishments and proposing their goals for the upcoming year.  A faculty member, a graduate student and an undergraduate student representing their units gave a synopsis of their current CMI-funded research.

Also speaking were Dr. Alix Berglund on the Associate Member Program, Dr. Eleanor Hawkins on the Clinical Studies Core, and Dr. Ed Bowden, Department Head of Chemistry, on the “Department Heads’ Perspective of the CMI.”   Closing comments were made by Dr. Alan Rebar, Vice Chancellor.

Throughout the day, twenty-five posters lined the walls of the Piedmont Mountains Ballroom displaying research from all of the grants funded by CMI this past year.  The ten Summer Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (SIRI) undergraduate students competed in a poster competition for three prizes.  Nithin Gupta won first prize of $150 for his poster entitled “Developing Exosomes as a Mediator for CRISPR/Cas9 Delivery.”  Ariana Frey won second prize of $100 for her poster entitled “The Development of a Three Dimensional In Vitro Model of Mast Cell Neoplasia.” Madison Craft won third place of $50 for his poster entitled “Investigating Endothelial Cell – Intestinal Stem Cell Interaction and Expression during Hypoxia.”  The posters were independently judged and Dr. Alan Rebar presented the awards at the end of the program.

The day ended with a collaboration reception celebrating the accomplishments of the past year and working on forming new partnerships in research for the future.