It was the first of April, but the 570 students and trainees gathered in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center weren’t fooling around: They were explaining their research to members of the Harvard Medical faculty and other judges at the HMS-sponsored New England Science Symposium.
The annual event promotes professional development in health-related fields for underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students at the undergraduate to the post-doctoral levels. Attendees representing 167 institutions, 31 states and Puerto Rico competed for prizes, which came with cash awards ranging from $50 to $300. (See a list of winners, judges and sponsors below.)
“It’s very exciting to be here,” said Angel Luna, a third-year undergraduate from East Los Angeles College, in Monterey Park, California, whose poster was titled Peptide-based Inhibitor of HIV-1 Entry. “I can feel more competitive. It makes me feel like I need to push myself to be better. Seeing the projects here makes me want to strive for more.”
For presentations and posters, cash prizes were awarded, thanks to the funding. Since 2002, the number of abstracts submitted has grown 11-fold, to 241. This year, 21 college students and one master’s candidate were recruited from the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, Arkansas and East Los Angeles, all areas with significant health disparities and a shortage of health professionals.
“I was feeling disheartened about research, science and my career path,” said Chidinma Anakwenze, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “But Lee Nadler’s speech really encourages me.”
In the keynote address, Nadler, HMS dean for Clinical and Translational Research and the Virginia D.K. Ludwig Professor of Medicine, urged the students to persevere, despite any doubts about their own abilities or the future of biomedical science.
“It’s a little intimidating, but I think it’s great because I can network and meet other people who are interested in the same thing as I am. I love research, and I love going to conferences and presenting.”
—Melissa Youssef, a senior at Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina
“Opportunities like this are awesome. I will come back and tell people to get involved—to come network and to learn about different areas in the biotech industry.”
—Mark Salem, now in his first year at MassBay Community College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, whose poster presentation was titled Analysis of the Changes in the 3’-UTR of COX-2 and its Effects in mRNS Half-Life
“It’s really exciting for me to be with a bunch of underrepresented minorities. It’s really empowering to see everyone’s work, and that we’re doing amazing things.”
—Rachel Ingraham, a recent Hampshire College graduate now working at Massachusetts General Hospital
Winners, Judges and Sponsors
Ruth and William Silen, MD Awards
Oral First Prize ($300): Chidinma Anakwenze – undergraduate student, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Oral Second Prize ($200): Karmella Haynes, postdoctoral research fellow, Harvard Medical School
Oral Third Prize ($100): Dennis Dean II, doctoral degree candidate, University of Massachusetts
Poster First Prize ($300): Alexis Tchaconas, undergraduate student, Columbia University
Poster Second Prize ($200): Tatiana Tennessee Nathanson, undergraduate student, Emory University
Poster Third Prize ($100): Osama Zayyad , college student, Yale University
Poster Honorable Mentions ($50):
- Debattama Sen, undergraduate student, Columbia University
- Komal Kothari, undergraduate student, Columbia University
- Ignacio Salas, undergraduate student, University of California Berkeley
- Binsen Li, Paola Peshkepija and Ramza Shahid, undergraduate students, Connecticut College
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Awards
Oral Prize ($300): Janghee Woo, doctoral degree candidate, Harvard Medical School
Poster Prize ($300): Tatiana Tennessee Nathanson, undergraduate college student, Emory University
The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Neonatology Award
Poster Award Winner ($300): Nicole de Paz, undergraduate student, Yale University
Parcell Laboratories Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Awards
Poster First Prize ($300): Robert Wardlow II, undergraduate student, University of Maryland
Poster Second Prize ($200): Yan Leyfman, undergraduate student, Stony Brook University
Poster Third Prize ($100): Rafael Gonzalez, undergraduate student, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Judges – Oral Presentations
Steven Freedman
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Chief, Division of Translational Research
Director, Pancreas Center and Clinical Research Affairs
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Alfred Johnson
Director, Office of Research Services
National Institutes of Health
Margaret R. Lentz
Instructor in Radiology
Harvard Medical School
Department of Radiology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Sharon Muret-Wagstaff
Assistant Professor of Anesthesia
Harvard Medical School
Director, Innovation and Faculty Development
Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Darryl Murray
Director, Undergraduate Scholarship Program
Office of Intramural Training and Education
National Institutes of Health
James Sherley
Senior Scientist
Programs in Regenerative Biology and Cancer Biology
Director, Adult Stem Cell Technology Center
Boston Biomedical Research Institute
J. Roberto Trujillo
President and CEO
TruBios, LLC
President, Pan-American Society of Neurobiology
Johns Hopkins University
Judges – Poster Session
Esther Alegria
Vice President, Manufacturing
Biogen Idec
Upendra Argikar
Research Investigator
Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.
Murat Bastepe
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Endocrine Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Fred Berkovitch
Director, Professorship Endowments
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Academic Affairs
Harvard University
Cesario Bianchi
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgery, Cardio-thoracic Division
Rhode Island Hospital
Paula Bokesch
Senior Medical Director
Clinical Research
Cubist Pharmaceuticals
Mark-Anthony Bray
Computational Biologist/Image Assay Developer
Imaging Platform
The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Tai Chen
Professor of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Director of Core Assay Laboratory
Boston University Clinical Translational Science Institute
Seng Cheng
Group Vice President, Genetic Diseases Science
Genzyme Corporation
Theodore Colton
Professor and Chair Emeritus
Department of Epidemiology
Boston University School of Public Health
Boston University Clinical Translational Science Institute
Thomas W. Concannon, PhD
Assistant Professor
Tufts University School of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Tufts Medical Center
Shoibal Datta
Associate Director, Research and Development Information Technology
Biogen Idec
Petra Duda
Director, Neurology Research and Development
Biogen Idec
Angeles Fernandez-Gonzalez
Instructor in Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Children’s Hospital Boston
Eric Fleegler
Instructor in Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Assistant in Medicine, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Children’s Hospital Boston
Daniel Jay
Professor of Physiology
Molecular Physiology and Pharmacology
Tufts University
Mark Johnson
Assistant Professor of Biology
Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry
Brown University
Jayoung Kim
Assistant Professor
Harvard Medical School
Staff Scientist
Children’s Hospital Boston
George King
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Senior Vice President and Research Director
Chief Scientific Officer
Joslin Diabetes Center
Winston Patrick Kuo
Director, Harvard Catalyst Laboratory for Innovative Translational Technologies
Harvard Medical School
Assistant Professor, Department Developmental Biology
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Ronilda Lacson
Instructor in Radiology
Harvard Medical School
Research Scientist, Decision Systems Group
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
José Lemos
Principal Scientist, Worcester Foundation
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Physiology Systems
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Brian Lewis
Associate Dean for Student Diversity
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Associate Professor
Program in Gene Function and Expression
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Mary Frances Lopez
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Endocrine Division
Children’s Hospital Boston
Judith Marquis
Group Vice President, Pharmacology and Preclinical Development
Genzyme Corporation
Camilia Martin
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Associate Director, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Jeffrey Mazique
Medical Officer, Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
Adjunct Professor, College of Nursing
Uniformed Services of the Health Sciences College of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, College of Allied Health
Howard University
Karl Munger
Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Associate Virologist, Division of Infectious Diseases
Channing Laboratory
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Steven Munevar
President and CEO
Munevar & Associates, Inc.
Anne Nicholson-Weller
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Jeffrey Nickerson
Associate Professor
Department of Cell Biology
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Bjorn Olsen
Hersey Professor of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School Professor of Developmental Biology
Dean for Research
Department of Developmental Biology
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Greg Paris
Director and Senior Research Investigator
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.
Jessica Katharine Paulus
Associate Director, Research Design Center
Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Tufts Medical Center
Robert Pomponio
Associate Scientific Director
Molecular Analysis Development: Genetics and Mass Spectrometry
Genzyme Corporation
Leon Reijmers
Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Tufts University
Fatima Rivas
Research Associate
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Chemical Biology and Therapeutics
Raymond Samuel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Grannum Sant
Vice President, U.S. Medical Affairs
Personalized Genetic Health Unit
Genzyme Corporation
Madelyn Schmidt
Assistant Professor
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Physiology
Program in Immunology and Virology
University of Massachusetts Worcester Campus
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Olga Shebanova
Investigator
Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research
Jared Silverman
Vice President, Discovery Biology
Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
John Stein
Senior Lecturer
Brown University
Department of Neuroscience
Bodo Stern
Director of Research Affairs
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology
Harvard University
Peter Tonellato
Research Associate in Biomedical Informatics
Center for Biomedical Informatics at Countway
Harvard Medical School
Radhika Tripuraneni
Global Medical Director
Gaucher Disease, LSD Global Medical Affairs
Genzyme Corporation
Robert Woodland
Chair, Immunology and Virology Program
Associate Professor of Genetics and Microbiology
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Henry Wortis
Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology
Director, Graduate Program in Immunology
Tufts University School of Medicine
Baldev “David” Vasir
Instructor
Harvard Medical School
Investigator, Department of Medical Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Gerard Zambetti
Member, Department of Biochemistry
Vice President and Director, Biomedical Sciences
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Poster Session Facilitators
Jamil B. Scott
Vincent Smith
Maria Teresa Baquero
