Research Retreat 2019 at Regions Field a Hit

ON August 16, the Department of Pathology gathered for a daylong Research Retreat at Regions Field near downtown Birmingham. The event was an opportunity for trainees, staff, and faculty to gather to discuss challenges and opportunities in research, including several outstanding presentations.

Organized by Rakesh Patel, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Research and Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, with the help of staff members Samantha Gromko and Traci Oden, the retreat included more than 100 attendees.

ROUNDTABLES A morning session started with a welcome by Dr. Patel, followed by roundtable discussions on the topics of: • Improving mentoring practices at each academic level • Promoting collaboration between basic and clinical researchers • UAB programs, incentives and resources available to faculty for research support • Pre- and post-grant awrad processing and management / navigating administration at UAB Panelists included Yabing Chen, Ph.D., and Marisa Marques, M.D., on mentoring; Z. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., and Adam Wende, Ph.D., on collaboration; Scott Ballinger, Ph.D., and Jennifer Croker, Ph.D. (CCTS), programs for research support; and Erin White and Israel PonceRodriguez, Pathology Administration, on pre- and post-grant processing and administration. After the morning session, trainees, post-doctoral fellows, clinical fellows, residents and research lab staff joined the faculty and administrative staff for an introduction by George Netto, M.D., Department Chair, followed by selected oral presentations by trainees and fellows: • Ashley Connelly (Graduate Trainee, Dr. Zedenek Hel’s Lab): “Identification and Characterization of Novel Human Neutrophil Subsets in Inflammation-Induced Pathogenesis” • Kellie Regal-McDonald (Graduate Trainee, Dr. Rakesh Patel’s Lab): “Endothelial hypoglycosylation enhances CD16+ monocyte adhesion: a role for alpha-mannosidases” • Felipe Massicano, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Shuko Harada’s Lab): “Exome sequencing identifies glycosylation defects as a probable cause of immune-mediated thrombotic thrombo-cytopenic purpura”

DATA BLITZ A lunch break coincided wtih the “Data Blitz and Present Your Idea” session, moderated by Rajeev Samant, Ph.D., in which faculty and trainees had two minutes and three slides in which to present their innovative ideas and questions with a goal of receiving feedback and identifying collaborative opportunities to help develop these ideas. Fourteen presentations on a variety of topics ranged in experience level

from postdoctoral fellows to graduate trainees, researchers to assistant professors, to division directors. This session was followed by a second set of oral presentations by trainees and fellows, moderated by Diana Morlote, M.D., Assistant Professor, Genomics Diagnostics & Bioinformatics: • Sunil R angarajan, M.D. (Clinical Fellow, Dr. Ralph Sanderson’s Lab): “Heparanase from Multiple Myeloma Causes Kidney Injury” • Sumit Agarwal, Ph.D . (Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Upender Manne’s Lab): “TRIM29 Overexpression is involved in Progression of Microsatellite Stable Colorectal Cancer” • Erin Smithberger (Graduate Trainee, Dr. Ryan Miller’s Lab): “Dual Kinase Inhibition to Combat EGFR-inhibitor Resistance in Glioblastoma”

A poster session followed the presentations, where trainees and faculty shared recent research concepts side by side in 50 unique posters.

POSTER AWARD WINNERS Graduate students: Ashley Connelly and Dominque Hinshaw Post-doc fellows: Sumit Agarwal and Matthew McConnell Clinical trainees: Sunil Rangarajan and Qing Wei The day concluded with remarks from Dr. Netto, including the presentation of poster and oral presentation awards. Robert Pritchett was on hand to attend the student presentations and present the Betty Pritchett Spencer Award for Cancer Research to Kasey Skinner, graduate trainee in the lab of Ryan Miller, MD, Ph.D., Division Director, Neuropathology.

Drs. Bryan Guillory, X. Long Zheng and Liz Worthey

Drs. George Netto, Soory Varambally, and Raj Namakkal-Soorappan