Discover UofSC was back in person for the first time since 2019 on April 22 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The annual showcase welcomed about 850 presentations and more than 2,000 attendees, including reviewers, mentors and visitors, and dozens of volunteers.

A large number of School of Medicine Columbia students, faculty, staff and Prisma-Health USC residents and fellows presented oral presentations or posters at the event, and many received accolades for their work.

“I am delighted to see the number of our graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, medical students, faculty, and Prisma Health-USC residents and fellows who received awards for their research or quality improvement presentations at Discover UofSC on April 22,” SOMC Dean Les Hall commented. The recognition of the high quality of the UofSC School of Medicine presentations reflects well on the quality of research being undertaken by our faculty, staff, and students. I offer my congratulations to all of who presented at this great event.”

 

Congratulations to all of our SOMC presenters and award winners (listed below).

Undergraduate Award Winners Who Were Mentored by SOM Faculty, Graduate Students, and Staff

Morning Oral Presentations:  Social Sciences and STEM A

First Place: Danielle Prisendorf, mentored by Dr. Mohamad Ashar and Dr. Mrinmay Chakrabarti.

 

Morning Poster:  Biology and Biomedical Sciences B

Second Place: Lauren James, mentored by Dr. Frank Spinale and Dr. Holly LaVoie

Honorable Mention:  Shoba Swaminathan, mentored by Dr. Norma Frizzell

 

Morning Poster:  Psychology and Neuroscience A

First Place: Karinne Cobb, mentored by Dr. Joseph McQuail, Tyler Cox, and Erin Gorman

 

Morning Poster: Experiential learning and GLD B

Second Place: Maria Bykalo, mentored by Dr. Lawrence Reagan

 

Morning Poster: Psychology and Neurosciences D

First Place: Breanna Robertson, mentored by Dr. Fiona Hollis and Erin Goreman-Sandler

 

Afternoon Poster: Biology ad Biomedical Sciences H

First Place: Jackson Goldsmith, mentored by Dr. John Eberth, Colton Kostelnik, and Breanna Pederson

Honorable Mention: Mitchell NeSmith, mentored by Dr. Angela Murphy and Dr. Brandon VanderVeen

 

Afternoon Poster: Psychology and Neuroscience G

First Place: Sarah Mott, mentored by Dr. Susan Wood, Brittany Pope, and Evelynn Harrington

 

Afternoon Poster: Psychology and Neuroscience H

First Place: Hayley Nicholson and Snezana Milosavljevic (post-doctoral fellow), mentored by Dr. Ana Pocivavsek and Dr. Jim Fadel.

 

Afternoon Poster:  Psychology and Neuroscience I

First Place: Melanie Tieman and David Horovitz (medical student), mentored by Dr. Joseph McQuail

Second Place: Sarisha Menon, mentored by Dr. Ana Pocivavsek and Dr. Snezana Milosavljevic

 

Graduate Student Poster Award Winners

Session G: Tyler Cox, Biomedical Science

Session I: Madeline Ladouceur, Genetic Counseling

Session M: Nicholas Maxwell, Biomedical Science

Session Q: Alkeiver Cannon, Biomedical Science

 

Medical Scholar Award Winners

Basic Medical Sciences

First Place: Ryan Bloomquist, MD student, De-Novo innervation of a Transplant Organ

Third Place: Ali Mirza, MD student, Heart Failure and the NLRP3 Inflammasome

 

Case Reports/Small Series/Learning Innovation

Second Place: Armaan Javaheri, MD student, Bilateral Avascular Necrosis of Capitate: A Case Report and Review of Surgical Treatments

 

Populations Outcomes/Quality

Second Place: Carra Lyons, MD student, Efforts to Reduce CAUTI Rates in Intensive Care and Progressive Care Units

Third Place: Alex Giakas, MD student, Open Ankle Fractures in the Elderly: A Multi-center Study

 

Therapeutic Effectiveness/Efficiency

First Place: Ryan Bloomquist, MD student, Reduction of Sars-CoV-2 Oral Viral Load with Prophylactic Mouth Rinse

 

The Deming Award for Best QI Project (QUEST Program)

Madelyn Welch, MD Student and Will Boyer, MD Student, mentored by Dr. Melanie Blackburn, Leveraging nurse education and EMR automation to improve screening rates of substance use in adolescents in the inpatient setting.

 

Postdoctoral Scholar Awards

Poster Presentation Award Winners

Session A

First Place: Dr. Mrinmay Chakrabarti, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Resveratrol inhibited calcification of valve interstitial cells through downregulation of transforming growth factor-β signaling mechanisms

Session B

First Place: Dr. Kiesha Wilson, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Single-cell RNA landscape of lungs from Staphylococcal enterotoxin B-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) reveals effects on various cell types

Session C

First Place: Dr. Taylor Carter, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, THC decreases Macrophage activation in a dose-dependent manner

Second Place (Tie): Dr. Snezana Milosavljevic, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience, Characterization of sleep architecture in male and female mice with kynurenine 3-monooxygenase deficiency