UPIKE hosts campus-wide research symposium

The University of Pikeville held its first comprehensive, campus-wide research symposium on April 9. Traditionally, the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine (KYCOM) and the Kentucky College of Optometry (KYCO) plan an annual research day. This year, the university collaborated to expand the program to the entire campus.

Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of Spanish Ella Smith-Justice, Ph.D., KYCOM Associate Professor of Pharmacology Kartick Pramanik, Ph.D., and KYCO Founding Faculty, Director of Research and Associate Professor of Optometry George Asimellis, Ph.D., MBA ’21, worked diligently to plan and execute this important event.

“I am glad to have worked closely with Provost Werth, Dr. Pramanik and Dr. Asimellis to help coordinate UPIKE’s first-ever symposium. The success of this inaugural event and its legacy are important to me. We built on the tradition established by KYCOM and KYCO to create a campus-wide event that is inclusive of all academic disciplines,” said Smith-Justice.

Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of Spanish Ella Smith-Justice, Ph.D.

UPIKE President Burton J. Webb, Ph.D., welcomed the group and emphasized the importance of life and research.

“Life alone is not enough; for living, is a verb. The more I learn about living, the more I realize that learning is life,” said Webb. “On this day, and over the course of the next several weeks, we will celebrate the life of the mind in all of its diversity. Research teaches us to hold reality tenderly because, at any given moment, contradictions might hope to unseat us from our unwitting ignominious purpose. Come, be curious, learn, laugh, and come to know the UPIKE family in a different way - as a community of scholars desiring to grow in knowledge as we live and learn, together.”

Keynote speaker Medical Director of Infectious Disease and Infection Prevention at Pikeville Medical Center Fadi Al Akhrass, M.D., FACP, MBA ’20, has worked incredibly hard within Pike County and throughout the Commonwealth to combat the health challenges of pandemic. He has led cutting-edge research related to COVID-19 and treatments to support patients.

Keynote speaker Medical Director of Infectious Disease and Infection Prevention at Pikeville Medical Center Fadi Al Akhrass, M.D., FACP, MBA ’20

“Each vaccine, along with the discovery of better therapeutics, will be pieces of the puzzle that will make the picture of going back to normalcy almost complete,” said Al Akhrass. “We are in this together, and only together, we can get through these unprecedented times. Lessons learned from this pandemic should allow us to be humble, fluid and change recommendations whenever they need to be tweaked, and better prepare ourselves for any potential harm.”

Among the nearly 50 students who participated in the symposium, six were awarded for their poster and oral presentations. Among those six was Coleman College of Business student (at the time) Preston Poag ’21.

Poag presented his product DiaStrip, a new solution to treat hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetics. DiaStrip is an oral hyperglycemic agent in the form of dissolvable glucose tongue strips.

“The market for high blood sugar regulation such as insulin has been transformed over the past decade with breakthroughs in technology and treatment. Treatments and aids have remained the same for low blood sugar regulation for many years,” said Poag.

Smith-Justice says the symposium was a special opportunity to come together as a university community and celebrate the scholarship of students, staff and faculty.

“We are doing so many wonderful things at UPIKE, in all of our colleges,” said Smith-Justice. “It is rewarding and meaningful to learn about the ways in which our scholars are making their marks in Central Appalachia and beyond.”

Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine

KYCOM has been growing and sustaining a successful student- and faculty-centered research program. It is critical that osteopathic medical schools not only provide outstanding medical education to our future physicians, but also contribute substantially to the scientific biomedical and clinical advances required to improve healthcare. Clinical research is what allows doctors to decide how to best treat patients.

Pramanik says through KYCOM’s research program, students can develop their analytic and critical thinking skills, which are essential to integrate scientific discovery and clinical insight to inform patient care.

Associate Professor of Pharmacology Kartick Pramanik, Ph.D.

“To encourage the research culture, we organized a UPIKE Research Symposium. All students across the campus were eligible to submit an abstract and present their poster at the event,” said Pramanik. “KYCOM has invested generously in research over the past few years. As evident, we increased our summer research fellowship to twofold.”

President of KYCOM Class of 2023 Taylor Reardon, OMS-II, won first place in oral presentations for his research on how hemoglobin induces oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs).

OPCs in the infant brain give rise to mature oligodendrocytes that myelinate CNS axons. OPCs are particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress that occurs in many forms of brain injury. One common cause of infant brain injury is neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), which releases blood into the CSF and brain parenchyma of preterm infants.

Although blood contains the powerful oxidant hemoglobin, the direct effects of hemoglobin on OPCs have not been studied.

“We utilized a cell culture system to test if hemoglobin induced free radical production and mitochondrial dysfunction in OPCs. We also tested if phenelzine (PLZ), an FDA-approved antioxidant drug, could protect OPCs from hemoglobin-induced oxidative stress. OPCs were isolated from Sprague Dawley rat pups and exposed to hemoglobin with and without PLZ,” said Reardon. “Hemoglobin induced oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function in OPCs. PLZ treatment reduced hemoglobin-induced oxidative stress and improved OPC mitochondrial bioenergetics. The effects of hemoglobin and PLZ on OPC proliferation were not statistically significant, but showed trends towards hemoglobin reducing OPC proliferation and PLZ increasing OPC proliferation. Collectively, our results indicate that hemoglobin induces mitochondrial dysfunction in OPCs, and that antioxidant therapy reduces these effects. Therefore, antioxidant therapy may hold promise for white matter diseases in which hemoglobin plays a role, such as neonatal IVH.”

First Place Oral Presentation Winner President of KYCOM Class of 2023 Taylor Reardon, OMS-II

KYCOM student Matthew Talmage won third place in oral presentations for his research on factors influencing outcomes of the dysplastic hip in non-ambulatory children with cerebral palsy.

KYCOM student Christina Campbell won third place in poster presentations for her research on Phytochemicals in the prevention of metastasis in lung cancer with KYCOM student David Cline and Pramanik.

Pramanik says KYCOM research empowers scientists and physicians to be leaders in structured cross-disciplinary research programs to increase knowledge for improved patient health and quality of life in the rural areas of Appalachia, keeping with the mission statement of the university.

Kentucky College of Optometry

The mission of research at KYCO is to support, coordinate and foster investigations of the visual system that advance clinical vision care dedicated to the enhancement of patient care through discovery and development of procedures and treatments for the detection, diagnosis and treatment of ocular pathology and the improvement of visual restoration.

“The pursuit of research excellence contributes to the overall mission of providing the highest quality, and most current knowledge, of basic clinical science as the essential, robust foundation for unsurpassed patient care,” said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Optometry Donald Egan, O.D., FAAO.

Vision is one of our most valuable senses. Research allows improvement; improvement of clinical procedures and protocols. It will enable implementation; ability to implement functional therapies. Research is the opportunity to expand knowledge.

Founding Faculty, Director of Research and Associate Professor of Optometry George Asimellis, Ph.D., MBA 21 says research is the future of the optometry profession.

“Vision science is a rapidly evolving field. What we teach today may well be outdated just 10 years down the road,” said Asimellis. “Topics like advanced laser surgery, corneal biomechanics and retinal cell implantation may change the profession as we know it and for the best.”

Founding Faculty, Director of Research and Associate Professor of Optometry George Asimellis, Ph.D., MBA 21

KYCO student Gabrielle Ault won first place for her poster presentation with Asimellis titled Double-Pass Measurement and Evaluation of PSF and MTF Shape in Young Adults - Correlation with Refractive Error.

Ocular examination with double-pass aberrometry is a novel approach to evaluating retinal image quality both in young/healthy as well as in elderly/pathology eyes.

“Using double-pass aberrometry, we evaluated the characteristics of two critical metrics of retinal image quality, namely the Point Spread Function (PSF) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). Metrics upon the PSF functions included the Strehl ratio, width at 50 percent, and width at 10 percent,” said Ault. “Metrics upon the MTF included the cutoff frequency. Results were correlated with visual acuity, depth of focus and known spherocylindrical error worn by the examinee.”

Asimellis, along with KYCO students Carrie Rippey and Maddison Smith, joined second place poster presentation winner, KYCO student Crystal Chan, to observe face mask use at six universities, including UPIKE.

“From September to November 2020, mask use was directly observed on six university campuses with mask mandates. Mask mandates at universities are associated with high rates of correct mask use, supporting the effectiveness of mandates to increase mask use,” said Chan. “Direct observation of mask use can provide rapid feedback to universities on the effectiveness of mask mandates. This work reports the contribution of the University of Pikeville in this project, which was directed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Correct, indoor mask use was 92.1 percent on campuses and 90 percent at nearby off-campus locations. Cloth masks were most commonly worn.”

Asimellis says research creates lifelong learners while pursuing the joy of discovery and is the breathing oxygen that keeps us at the forefront of the advancing science.