Student, Postdoctoral Research and Presentation Skills Showcased at PPS Symposium

Aug. 30 – Six UH College of Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows received awards for their research presentations at the 2021 PPS Research Symposium Aug. 12-13.

Launched in 2013, the symposium is designed to promote intradepartmental sharing and deliberation of the latest findings of fellow faculty members, students, postdoctoral fellows and research associates as well as provide a forum for students and postdocs to practice and polish their presentation and discussion skills.

For the first time in the symposium's history, two first-place winners were recognized in the Graduate Student Poster Presentation:

Noor Adbulkareem for "The interaction between ADGRF1 (GPR110) and Laminin-111 alters G-protein coupling and downstream signaling to inhibit tumorigenesis in HER-2-positive breast cancer"; and

Xue Zhou for "Synthesis, physicochemical and biological evaluations of peptide-anticancer drug conjugates transport across the blood-brain barrier."

Winners of the Graduate Student Poster Presentation category were:

Wissarut Wijitrmektong, first place, for "Expanding the Structure-Activity Relationship of CpCDPK1 Inhibitors for Cryptosporidiosis"; and

Guoyi Jiang, second place, for "Peptide drug SP16: novel formulation and PK/PD for the treatment of ARDS [Acute respiratory distress syndrome]."

Winners of the Postdoctoral Fellow Oral Presentations category were:

Anirban Roy, Ph.D., first place, for "Targeted activation of TAK1 promotes skeletal muscle growth and protects from neurogenic atrophy"; and

Asif Zaman, Ph.D., second place, for "Angiotensin1-7 Protects Against Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury via Regulating the Expression of Nrf2 and microRNAs in Fisher 344 Rats."

The program also welcomed a Scholar-in-Residence, Thomas Kodadek, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute. Kodacek received the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award in 2006 and the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award in 2018. He also has been recognized with the Makeneni Award from the American Peptide Society and the Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2017.

During the symposium, Kodacek presented a scientific talk, "Chemical tools to monitor and manipulate the proteome," and a career/professional development talk, "Building your career: Don’t worry, be happy!"