Reminder: USF Health Research Day is Feb. 24.

This event just keeps on growing.  While last year’s event set new records, this year’s breaks them again.  More details follow, but highlights include:

• The venue was a huge hit last year, so the location remains at the Marshall Center.
• A dedicated shuttle running between USF Health and the Marshall Center.
• A record-number of poster presentations (340 vs. 260 last year).
• A record-number of undergraduates presenting (29 vs. 22).
• First year for presentations from the new College of Pharmacy students.
• Ten selected student presenters at the 3rd  Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session
• Second-ever presentation of the Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Award for a winning neuroscience poster presentation.
• 16 high school students from a charter school in The Villages will be attending, showcasing their own award-winning posters.
• The Sunshine Education and Research Center will be holding their section meeting with posters and a lecture.

About the 22nd Annual USF Health Research Day:
USF Health Research Day is an annual event that showcases the work of graduate and postgraduate students and residents from throughout USF Health, as well as across campus. Judges make their rounds to each poster presentation, asking the lead researchers to further explain their methods, results and conclusions before deciding on the award-worthy entrants. In addition, a leading national researcher provides the Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship.

The day-long event is a prime opportunity for collaboration, since it bridges several colleges, schools and disciplines, and acts as a perfect “practice run” for many of the presenters whose work may garner spots at national research meetings.

Location:
Last year’s move to the Marshall Center proved to be a good one, because organizers and presenters alike opted to keep it there this year. Researchers participating this year will display their work in the second-floor ballroom of the Marshall Center and the annual keynote address will take place in the Marshall Center’s Oval Theatre.

Getting there:
For your convenience (and free with a USF ID), a dedicated shuttle will be available throughout the day Feb. 24 to take presenters and spectators to and from USF Health and the Marshall Center. The shuttle’s route will include stops at the front of the Morsani Center, the College of Public Health and at the shuttle stop near the loading dock area of USF Health (behind the College of Nursing). Look for the shuttle with the “USF Health Research Day event MSC” sign on it.

In addition, you can ride the regularly scheduled USF Bull Runner shuttle bus. Shuttle B’s route picks up in front of the College of Public Health and near the loading dock area of USF Health. Shuttle D’s route picks up near the crosswalk on Holly Drive at USF Health.

Keynote Speaker: 16th Annual Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship
Presented at 1:00 pm in the Marshall Center’s Oval Theatre.
Stephen B. Liggett, MD
Professor of medicine and physiology, director of the Cardiopulmonary Genomics Program, and associate dean for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Title of talk: “Personalized Medicine for Asthma: Role of Viral Genomic Variation”

Dr. Stephen Liggett’s lab focuses on five key, interrelated areas of research: The study of the molecular basis of G-protein couples receptor structure and function; delineation and characterization of human genetic variants within this receptor signaling network; association studies of genetic variant with heart and lung disease and their response to treatment to develop a platform for genetically based personalized medicine; creation of genetically modified mice to define the mechanisms of heart and lung disease and “humanized mice” to explore the effects of genetic variation of human genes; and determination of the full genome sequences of human Rhinoviruses using high throughput next-generation sequencing technologies, and analysis of the relationships between viral genomes and asthma phenotypes.

These studies have led to new paradigms in our understanding of how this superfamily of receptors (the largest in the human genome) carry out signaling, how they participate in the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure and asthma, and how a patient’s genetic makeup can be used to tailor drug treatment.

Need more info?
About USF Health Research Day: http://health.usf.edu/research/home.html

About the USF Bull Runner shuttle service: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/parking_services/default.asp.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications