Medical Guild Research Competition 2008

The 33rd annual Medical Guild-sponsored graduate student research competition is scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, April 23, beginning at 8:00 a.m. in the Auditorium of the Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy [HPNP] Building, 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.  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' final rankings:  one Gold Medal finalist ($1,200), two Silver Medal finalists ($600), and three Bronze Medal finalists ($400).  In addition, these students' names will be inscribed on a plaque on permanent display in the Office of Graduate Education.  Please note that, thanks to the generosity of the Medical Guild, the dollar amounts for the awards have increased this year!
 

2008 Medical Guild Research Competition Finalists
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology:   Allyn Spear “Virus-Host Interaction: Cellular Protein Involvement in Poliovirus RNA Replication”
Genetics:   Jason O'Rourke "Dicer-dependent ncRNAs are essential for embryonic myogenesis" 
Immunology & Microbiology:   Jason Weinstein

"Generation of antigen-specific B and T lymphocyte responses in ectopic lymphoid tissues "

Molecular Cell Biology:   Jeffrey Brower "Targeted Distribution of Ant4 Leads to Meiotic Arrest and Subsequent Male Infertility"
Neuroscience:   Stephanie Jefferson "Chondroitinase ABC Treatment Following Spinal Cord Injury Improves Skilled Motor Behavior and Enhances Plasticity of Supraspinal Motor Pathways"
 
Physiology & Pharmacology:   Stephen Fernando "Targeting TEM8 in Tumor Vessels”

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 Susan Gardner in the Office of Graduate Education (R1-102) no later than Friday, March 21st, 2008.  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.

6. An up-to-date CV, including publications, abstracts presented at meetings, honors & awards, and grant funding.  

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 sgard@ufl.edu, will be provided to the judges.  Items 5-6 may be turned in the following week, but no later than Friday, March 28th.

The oral presentations are scheduled to take place on the morning of Wednesday, April 23 (8:00 a.m.) in the Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy Building Auditorium, followed by a reception/luncheon in honor of all participating students and the faculty judges.  You must attend the morning session or be a poster presenter in order to attend lunch.

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 COM Research Day!

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

2007 Medical Guild Research Competition Finalists
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology:   Roxana Coman The Contribution of the Naturally Occurring Polymorphism in Altering the Biomedical And Structural Characteristics of HIV-1 Subtype C Protease
Genetics:   Kim Van Vliet Exploring the Surface Topology of Adeno-Associated Virus
Immunology & Microbiology:   Pui Lee A Novel Type I Interferon-producing Cell Subset in Murine Lupus
Molecular Cell Biology:   Kwon-Ho Hong Development of a Novel Animal Model of Human Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH)
Neuroscience:   Zane Zeier Phenotypic Rescue in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome
Physiology & Pharmacology:   You-Lin Tain Vitamin E Reduces Glomerulosclerosis, Restores Renal Neuronal NOS, and Suppresses Oxidative Stress in the 5/6 Nephrectomized Rat


Kwon-Ho Hong (Bronze), You-Lin Tain (Bronze), Zane Zeier (Silver), Roxana Coman (Silver), Kim Van Vliet (Bronze), Pui Lee (Gold)

 

Past winners:
     2007    Pui Lee, Roxana Coman, Zane Zeier, Kwon-Ho Hong, You-Lin Tain, Kim Van Vliet
    2006    Valerie Crusselle Davis, Christina Pacak, Michael Godeny, Amar Singh, Nicole Tester, Bei Wang
    2005    Antonio Amelio, Stephanie Amici, Christina Norris, Padraic Levings, Ann Griswold, Sean Kearns
    2004    Karen Vieira, Rahul Kanadia, Eric Sandberg, Edgar Rodriguez, Mary Ann Checkley, Alaric Falcon
    2003    Stormy Chamberlain, Jared Wilsey, Erin Keen Rhinehart, Chris Williams, Steve Guthrie, Jin He
    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

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last revised 4/29/08  tr