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HIGHLIGHTS

Report on the Summer 2019 Activities of SPURS:
A Biomedical Research Program

SPURS Group
ON AUGUST 1st, 2019 WE COMPLETED THE 17TH EDITION OF SPURS!

With funding from the National Institutes of health (NIH) and other generous private donations, the SPURS program was able to accommodate 22 fellows: 12 females and 10 males; 10 African–American, 8 Hispanic-American, and 2 Asian-American, 1 Pacific Islander, and 1 Native American. This year, we had twelve students attending schools in New York including, Columbia University, Barnard College, New York University, and CUNY Hunter College, City College, and Sophie Davis. The remaining students attended schools from across the country, including Williams College, Yale, Boston College, Rutgers University, Smith College, Tufts University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, and Villanova University. We received a record number of 142 applications this academic year. We partnered again with Prep for Prep to integrate their students into the SPURS program. All students received housing within the Columbia University dormitories on behalf of a generous donation from the Dean’s office.

The 2019 participants are: Hajirah Gumanneh, Cesar Diaz, Alexis Fisher, Eden Teferi, Marquis Guillory, Alexander Kaminsky, Olubunmi Fariyike, Brandon Cuevas, Monique Duffus, Jovanka Noel, Rachel Ofer, Naomi Ligon, Tania Pena-Ortiz, Jorge Caceda, Devin Barzallo, Viviana Laines Macias, Marwah Kiani, Rami Imam, Joseph Nguyen, Sophia Reyes, Abraham Eafa, and Crystal Nieves.

1) Devin Barzallo
Mentor: Dr. Phyllis Faust
"Post-Translational Modification of Ryanodine Receptor 1 in Essential Tremor Cerebellum "

 

2) Jorge Caceda
Mentor: Dr. Virginia Cornish
"Genetically Engineering a Fungal G-Protein Coupled Receptor to Recognize a Foreign Target"

 

3) Brandon Cuevas
Mentor: Dr. Kenneth Olive
"The Role of the Transcription Factor NFE2L3 in Pancreatic Cancer "

 

4) Cesar Diaz
Mentor: Dr. Christine Denny
"Prophylactin (R,S)-Kitamine Protects Against Fear Overgeneralization "

 

5) Monique Duffus
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Marks
"Cardiac and Respiratory Dysfunction in Delta-Sarcoglycan Deficient Mice "

 

6) Abraham Eafa
Mentor: Dr. Oliver Clark
"Investigating the Effects of Atorvastatin on RyR1"

 

7) Olubunmu Fariyike
Mentor: Dr. Virginia Cornish
"Improving the Bistability of Environmental Sensors in Living Biomaterials ”

 

8) Alexis Fisher
Mentor: Dr. Rene Hen
“Eliminating Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Aged Mice is Sufficient to Impair Contextual Fear Learning ”

 

9) Marquis Guillory
Mentor: Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento
"Formation of Cytotoxic zAAT Polymers in the Lungs of PIZ Transgenic Mice ”

 

10) Hajirah Gumanneh
Mentor: Dr. Jonathan Javitchl
“Regulation of Dopamine-Mediated Behaviors by ADGRL3, an ADHD susceptibility Gene”

 

11) Rami Imam
Mentor: Dr. Robert Bauer
“Playing Marco Polo with Tribbles-1”

 

12) Alexander Kaminsky
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Marks
“Ryanodine receptor Modification by Mitochondrial ROS in Atrial Fibrillation Mouse Models”

 

13) Marwah Kiani
Mentor: Dr. Emily Mace
“Defining the Role of CD56 in Natural Killer Cell Immune Synapse Formation ”

 

14) Viviana Laines
Mentor: Dr. Manu Ben-Johny
“Modulation of Neuronal Nav1.1 by Calmodulin and Intracellular Fibroblast Growth Factors ”

 

15) Naomi Ligon
Mentor: Dr. Georgo Hasko
“The Effect of extracellular UDP and UTP on Cytokine Production through P2Y Receptors in Macrophages ”

 

16) Crystal Nieves Garcia
Mentor: Dr. Charles Emala
Relaxation of Airway Smooth Muscle by 6-Shogaol via Inhibiton of Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase

 

17) Joseph Nguyen
Mentor: Dr. Kimara Targoff
“Exploring the Role of crip genes in Embryonic Cardiogenesis of Zebrafish ”

 

18) Jovanka Noel
Mentor: Dr. Henry Colecraft
“Assessing the Impact of NEDD4-like Ubiquitin Ligases on Cav1,1 Trafficking and Stability ”

 

19) Rachel Ofer
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Marks
“Leaky Ryanodine Receptors and the Cognitive Dysfunction in Chemotherapeutic Treated Breast Cancer Animal Models"

 

20) Tania Pena Ortiz
Mentor: Dr. Stavroula Kousteni
“Implication of Bone Marrow Niche in IDH1/2-Mutant MDS/AML ”

 

21) Sophie Reyes
Mentor: Dr. John Orange
“The Effect of Dynein Inhibiton on Lytic Granule Convergence in Human NK Cells ”

 

22) Eden Teferi
Mentor: Dr. Edward Owusu-Ansah
"A MitoCarta Screen to I dentify Novel Regulators of complex I Assembly"

 

 

The program began on Monday, June 3rd, 2019 with an orientation led by Dr. Monica Goldklang, Kyle Stearns, and Jarrod Sonett. Orientation included an overview of the program, as well as a discussion of research ethics and safety training. All students received instruction in Laboratory and Research Safety from the CUMC Environmental Health and Safety Department. This comprehensive seminar educated incoming students on how to maintain a safe environment through hazardous waste management, biological safety, fire safety, the use of personal protective equipment and chemical tracking/safety.

The SPURS special seminar series program met at least once weekly throughout the summer. Speakers reflected on their career paths and provided insight into the students’ own career development regarding MD and PhD programs. Seminar topics also included intensive talks about leading scientific research, personal stories of difficulties encountered by underrepresented persons in academic medicine, and professional decision making to excel in graduate school and beyond. This year we had a diverse set of speakers at various stages in their careers.

The panel of speakers included: Dean Lee Goldman, Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, Dr. Jaime Rubin, Dr. Edward Owusu-Ansah, Dr. Henry Colecraft, Dr. Ray Johnson, Dr. Christine Denny, Dr. Dennis Mitchell, Dr. Anne Moscona, Dr. Andrew Marks, and Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento. These sessions also served as an opportunity for the program directors to monitor the students’ progress, address any issues or concerns, and connect. On Monday July 29th, each student gave an oral presentation of their summer project to Drs. Marks, D’Armiento, Goldklang as well as program coordinators Kyle Stearns and Jarrod Sonett. Extensive feedback to each SPURS student was provided with guidance on the scientific content as well as presentation. In addition, students participated in an expanded mentoring session with students from Columbia’s Medical and Graduate schools – MD, PhD, and MD/PhD candidates.

There were a series of ancillary activities including:

• A tour of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Headquarters

• A tour of the New York Structural Biology Center by Dr. Wayne Hendrickson, Scientific Director of the NYSBC and University Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University

• A Q&A session with a panel of PhD, MD, and MD/PhD Students

• New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners (tickets donated by the New York Yankees)

The 2019 program culminated on Thursday, August 1st when each of the students presented their research in a poster session. This session was attended by mentors, post-doctoral fellows, faculty, and graduate students. The poster session served as an excellent tool to help the students synthesize their 9 weeks of intense research. Uniformly, each of the students expressed their gratitude for the learning experience and opportunities offered by the SPURS program. On Friday, August 2nd the students returned to their laboratories for a final day of experiments and celebrations with their lab mates and mentors. The participants are listed below along with the title of their research project and mentor’s name.


 

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25NS076445. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.