NYMC Students and Faculty Shine at TU Research Day
The first Touro-wide Research Day highlighted the best original research by faculty and students.
As part of Touro University’s (TU) 50th Anniversary series of celebratory events, the first Research Day for the entire TU community took place on May 3. The event recognized the best faculty research publications in 2019 and the best student posters presented at Research Day 2022. Ph.D. candidates in microbiology and immunology, Michelle Carnazza, left, and Tara Jarboe and M.D./Ph.D. candidate Sina Dadafarin won for best student posters while faculty members Julio Panza, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Cardiology, and Sangmi Chung, Ph.D., associate professor of cell biology and anatomy, were recognized for their publications.
Posters were selected for presentation by a multi-step process to highlight the best research projects throughout TU. After rigorous local judging, a final group of posters was chosen for presentation in four categories with first and second place prizes. Students in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology swept the basic sciences and natural sciences category.
First Place
“COL26A1 Promotes Papillary Thyroid Cancer Invasion and Metastasis and Correlates with Poor Survival and Clinical Outcomes”
Michelle Carnazza, Ph.D. candidate in microbiology and immunology, and Sina Dadafarin, M.D./Ph.D. candidate
Mentor: Jan Geliebter, Ph.D., professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology and associate professor of otolaryngology
Second Place
“Genotypic and phenotypic alterations of anaplastic thyroid cancer and tumor microenvironment remodeling by Berberine”
Tara Jarboe, Ph.D. candidate in microbiology and immunology
Mentors: Xiu-Min Li, M.D, M.S., professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology and Raj K. Tiwari, Ph.D., professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology and associate professor of otolaryngology
TU Research Day also recognized faculty across all Touro campuses for their 2019 research publications in two categories. NYMC faculty garnered two awards in the biomedical, health and natural sciences category.
Gold Prize
Julio Panza, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Cardiology
Myocardial Viability and Long-Term Outcomes in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy
New England Journal of Medicine, August 22, 09
Dr. Panza led the international, multi-center study funded by the National Institutes of Health that showed a common test, currently used to determine whether patients who have previously suffered one or more heart attacks should undergo bypass surgery, is actually inconclusive and should not be relied on solely for the decision. In conjunction with the findings from other studies by the same investigators, the findings suggest patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy should be recommended to undergo bypass surgery based on the extent of their coronary disease rather than on the results of tests assessing myocardial viability.
Bronze Prize
Sangmi Chung, Ph.D., associate professor of cell biology and anatomy
Dysregulated Protocadherin-Pathway Activity as an Intrinsic Defect in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell–Derived Cortical Interneurons From Subjects with Schizophrenia.
Nature Neuroscience, January 21, 2019
Dr. Chung’s research created specific neurons that inhibit other neurons from stem cells derived from 14 healthy individuals and 14 patients with schizophrenia and studied what is wrong with these specific neurons in schizophrenia. The study found that proteins called protocadherin are made less in schizophrenia. This abnormality resulted in structural defects in these neurons in schizophrenia.
TU Research Day was organized and implemented by an intercampus planning committee led by Salomon Amar, D.D.S., Ph.D., vice president for research and professor of pharmacology and of pathology, microbiology and immunology at NYMC, senior vice president for research affairs at TU. The day also featured a notable panel of speakers including the keynote presentation by Alan Kadish, M.D., president, TU, who presented "Research at Touro: A 50-Year Journey," and distinguished research speaker Peter J. Fitzgerald, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology at Stanford University Medical School, who presented "The Epic Change in Healthcare...The Future is Closer Than You Think!"