Medical Guild Research Competition 2003

The 28th annual Medical Guild-sponsored graduate student research competition will be held on the morning of Friday, April 11th, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, as part of our annual "College of Medicine Research Day" sponsored by the COM Faculty Council and Office of the Dean.  Each IDP advanced concentration may nominate ONE graduate student for participation in this competition, which will consist of 15-minute oral research presentations and 5-minute Q&A sessions for each participant.  Advanced students admitted by departments prior to the IDP are also eligible.  Presentations will be evaluated by a panel of faculty judges, who will rank them in terms of excellence.  All six students will be recognized and presented an award certificate at the Research Day luncheon, and will receive a cash award from the UF Medical Guild based on the judges' rankings:  $1,000 for 1st place, $600 for 2nd place, $500 for 3rd place, $400 for 4th place, and $100 for 5th & 6th place.  In addition, these students will be presented with a certificate at the College of Medicine Honors Convocation, and their names will be inscribed on a plaque, which is on permanent display in the Office of Graduate Education.  Finally, all six students will be recognized at a separate Medical Guild luncheon (date and location to be announced).

2003 Participants:

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Christopher Williams A Tale of Two States:  The ATP-dependent Conformational Change in the Escherichia coli DNA Polymerase III Clamp Loader
Genetics  Stormy Chamberlain Dissecting the Phenotype of Prader-Willi Syndrome Mice
Immunology & Microbiology Jin He Discovery and Functional Study of Novel Tumor Specific Genes for Cancer Gene Therapy
Molecular Cell Biology Steve Guthrie Role of ENOS and INOS in Hemangbioblast Activity and Blood Vessel Formation
Neuroscience  Erin Keen Rhinehart Leptin Receptor Replacement in the Brain using Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors
Physiology & Pharmacology Jared T. Wilsey Doxycycline-Inducible Leptin Gene Therapy:  Reversible Transgene Expression and Physiological Responses


Erin Keen Rhinehart (3),  Chris Williams (4), Jin He (5), Stormy Chamberlain (1),  Jared T. Wilsey (2), Steve Guthrie (5)

Past winners:
    2002    Angela Starkes, Brian Raisler, Kelly Leach, Mike Thomson, Jason Coleman, Yi Tang
    2001    Matthew Simmons, Don Latner, Sung-Hae Lee Kang, Keith Bahjat
    2000    Vincent Leveque, Harveen Dhillon, Susan Blaydes, Lingyun Li
    1999    Yuan Clare Zhang, Darwin Ang, Kristin B. Moon, Yujiang Shi
    1998    Jeff Martens, Jill Miller, Kelly McDonald, Pei Wu
    1997    Annette Oberdorf, Stephen T. Nowicki, Mary Catherine Bowman, Miduturu Srinivas
    1996    Scott Wilson, Tiffany Alley, Steve Munger, Chris Robinson

Advanced concentration directors or their designates will be coordinating the selection of the nominee from each advanced concentration in time for submission of the nominating packets.  Please contact your advanced concentration director or graduate secretary for more information.

Nomination packets from each advanced concentration must be received by Julie Shih in the Office of Graduate Education (R1-102) no later than Friday, March 21, 2003.  Nomination packets should include:

1. Name of graduate student nominee

2. Name of the student’s faculty mentor

3. The exact title of the presentation

4. An abstract that summarizes the student’s research.  This should be no more than one page in length (single-spaced) and should include the objectives, methods, results and conclusions.

5. A research article that provides a more detailed report of the student’s research.  This should include the objectives, background, significance, results, and conclusions, and should not exceed 1,500 words double-spaced.  Literature citations and experimental methods should be included as an appendix, and do not count toward the word limitation.  NOTE:  Reprints of published manuscripts that the student has authored should not be submitted in lieu of this description.

Please note that items 1-4 will be used by the Faculty Council to produce the Research Day printed program, and are due on Friday, March 21st.  Items 4 & 5, which should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents either on a diskette or as an e-mail attachment sent to jshih@dean.med.ufl.edu, will be provided to the judges.  Item 5 may be turned in the following week, no later than Wednesday, March 26th.

The oral presentations will take place in the Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy Building Auditorium (1st floor) on the morning of Friday, April 11th, from 8:30-11:00 a.m.  These will be followed by medical student research talks, and then a reception/luncheon at noon in the HPNP reception area (ground floor), in honor of all participating students and the faculty judges.

I’m sure you will all agree that this is a very generous continuing contribution from the Medical Guild, which helps to support and encourage excellence in graduate student research.  Everyone is encouraged to attend the COM Research Day activities, which will also include a faculty poster session, seminars by last year's COM Faculty Basic Science and Clinical Science award winners, and a keynote speaker.  A good turnout, especially during the student portion of the program, will demonstrate our grateful appreciation of this support to our graduate program.  I look forward to seeing you on April 11th.

Wayne T. McCormack, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Graduate Ecucation

IDP Homepage
IDP Students Page

last revised 3/25/03
WTM