- College of Medicine Communique Research Students
From an early age, Sarah Voskamp loved math and science and knew she wanted to impact people’s lives. And at the Focused Inquiry & Research Experience (FIRE) Conference 2024, she brought those passions together in presenting her research on better predicting heart conditions in infants.
The FIRE Conference showcases two years of medical research undertaken by UCF students beginning their medical education. Each student is required to create a poster to present to student and faculty evaluators, with the top 18 most promising given the opportunity to give a presentation in front of fellow students, faculty members and senior leadership including UCF College of Medicine Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean Dr. Deborah German.
For her project, Voskamp compared healthy heart tissue with that caused by Tetralogy of Fallot, a condition where the baby’s heart does not form correctly in the womb. The condition causes low blood flow and accounts for 10% of congenital heart disease.
“I have always been interested in congenital heart surgery, with its collection of rare diseases, because that is where we have a lot of room to learn and grow,” said Voskamp. “As a doctor, if I can make a difference and hear a patient say, ‘She turned it around for me,’ that would be an honor.”
In her research, she examined samples of right ventricles from 39 TOF patients and 19 non-TOF patients, comparing the upregulated and downregulated genes to try to find patterns. She identified the genes FBXP32, which was upregulated in TOF patients, PTGES, which was downregulated in TOF patients and PPARGC1A, which causes the regulation of both of these genes.
Her research was published in Birth Defects Research, a rare distinction for a medical student so early in their career.
Her hope is that by discovering genetic screening targets, physicians and scientists can develop earlier treatments or preventatives for the condition.
Dr. German created the FIRE module when UCF’s medical school opened in 2009, saying she wanted to foster in students a “spirit of inquiry” that would add to the world’s medical knowledge. As part of the required module, students create a hypothesis about a topic about which they are passionate and work with a research mentor to conduct the scientific project.
Other 2024 presentations included the correlation between cystic fibrosis and COVID-19 complications and studies on head and neck cancers in children over the past 20 years.
Isadore Nottolini, focused his research on fellow students, studying whether those who attend classes in person during their first two years do better in their clerkships during their third and fourth years.
“M1 and M2 students want areas they can target as predictors of academic success, so if they are struggling, they have clear areas to improve,” said Nottolii. “In undergrad, we know that better attendance indicates better results, but there haven’t been studies for M1 and M2s.”
Surprisingly, Nottolini’s research could not find any correlation, showing the importance of research into topics that may be considered common sense, or foregone conclusions drawn from prior research.
The FIRE Conference also featured a plenary lecture from Dr. Aruna Naturajan, pediatric intensivist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, who shared her journey through medicine.
She recalled her interest in research beginning when she was caring for a young boy with AIDS at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic. As the boy screamed in pain, she began to cry herself, turning to a doctor and saying, “what is the point of all this when we do not have a cure?” The doctor told her that research into care and new treatments was moving all of them forward.
“Research not only gives our front-line carers tools to care for patients, but hope that these patients might one day be cured as well,” she said.
FIRE Conference Co-Director Dr. Robert Hines, a population health researcher, praised the students for their scientific endeavors. “Medical school is hard; conducting a research project in your first two years is harder,” he said. “A lot of work goes into this, with all students getting the opportunity to get involved in varying levels of research, and they have pulled it off expertly.”
The winners of this year’s FIRE Conference were:
Poster Presentation – Faculty Choice
1st Place: Banarjee, Chitra
Title: Early Outcomes: Changes in Physical Activity Show No Correlation with Objectively and Subjectively Measured Balance
Mentor/Affiliation: Joon-Hyuk Park, PhD, UCF
2nd Place: Kumar, Sanjan
Title: Level 1 and Level 2 Trauma Centers Show Similar Outcomes in Exploratory Laparotomy Patients
Mentor/Affiliation: David, Lebowitz, MD, UCF
3rd Place: Molligoda, Brandon
Title: Identifying Prognostic Factors: Age and Tumor Location Predict Tumor Response Following Radiation Treatment in Meningioma Patients
Mentor/Affiliation: Naren Ramakrishna, MD, PhD, Orlando Health
Poster Presentation – Peer Choice
1st Place: Shaylor, Jemual
Title: Quantification of Systemic-to-Pulmonary Collateral Vessel Burden Using Current Imaging Modalities: An Examination of Emerging Techniques and the Use of Additional Computational Analysis
Mentor/Affiliation: Alain Kassab, PhD, UCF
2nd Place: Ukleja, Jacob
Title: A Ray of Hope: The Difference of Incidence and Timing of Pseudoprogression Between Proton vs. IMRT Glioblastoma Treatments
Mentor/Affiliation: Naren Ramakrishna, MD, PhD, Orlando Health
3rd Place: Hsieh, Michael
Title: Time and Cost Associated with Postoperative Pediatric Urology Presentations to the Emergency Department
Mentor/Affiliation: Pamela Ellsworth, MD, Nemours
Oral Presentation – Faculty Choice
1st Place: Molligoda, Brandon
Title: Identifying Prognostic Factors: Age and Tumor Location Predict Tumor Response Following Radiation Treatment in Meningioma Patients
Mentor/Affiliation: Naren Ramakrishna, MD, PhD, Orlando Health
2nd Place: Formanski, Erin
Title: Metformin Use Prior to Hip Fracture Surgery: Does it Cause Complications?
Mentor/Affiliation: Mohamed Shaath, MD, Orlando Health
3rd Place: Cohen, Katherine
Title: Evaluating Preclinical Medical School Integration of Diversity and Bias Awareness Education Related to Analgesia and Opioid Use Disorder
Mentor/Affiliation: Laurel Gorman, PhD, Temple University School of Medicine
Oral Presentation – Peer Choice
1st Place: Molligoda, Brandon
Title: Identifying Prognostic Factors: Age and Tumor Location Predict Tumor Response Following Radiation Treatment in Meningioma Patients
Mentor/Affiliation: Naren Ramakrishna, MD, PhD, Orlando Health
2nd Place: Cohen, Katherine
Title: Evaluating Preclinical Medical School Integration of Diversity and Bias Awareness Education Related to Analgesia and Opioid Use Disorder
Mentor/Affiliation: Laurel Gorman, PhD, Temple University School of Medicine
3rd Place: Raodeo, Pinak
Title: The Occurrence of Substance Use Issues and PTSD in TBI Patients
Mentor/Affiliation: Michael Hoffmann, MD, PhD, UCF
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