- Burnett School Research
UCF biomedical sciences graduate students and postdocs recently shared their innovative research on improving health – including ways to create better flu shots, treatments for Lyme disease and diagnostics for colorectal cancer.
This year’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences Graduate Research Symposium featured more than 50 research projects. Students shared their findings with faculty and competed for cash prizes for the top research.
Dr. Jackie Zhao, a Burnett School professor and symposium chair, said the symposium provides young researchers the opportunity to analyze their data and create compelling presentations that ultimately can get support from research funding organizations.
“It takes a lot of effort and hard work to just get the data for these presentations, without that, you cannot have a presentation,” he said. “Then students also need to find how to pull that together into a good story that they can continue to work on, from the bench, into clinical trials and potentially into a new drug.”
Second-year Ph.D. student Aaron Beaird joined the Burnett School with a passion for understanding infectious diseases. He discovered a mentor in Dr. Tara Strutt, associate professor and College of Medicine immunology researcher.
His research is focused on better understanding influenza so medicine can develop one complete vaccine – rather than changing the flu vaccine every year based on the disease’s newest strain.
Current vaccines are designed to attack influenza’s surface proteins, which change constantly. Beaird is looking at ways to attack the virus’ internal, more stable proteins to create a superpowered vaccine patients might only have to take once.
Generally, vaccines work by introducing a weak or inactive version of a virus to the body. That allows the immune system to recognize the virus as a threat and remember how to fight it when you’re exposed to the flu.
However, not all of the body’s memory cells are created equal. Beaird’s research is examining the makeup of the strongest memory cells to see how future vaccines can be developed that program these cells to help the body create superpowered defenses against the flu.
He said the conference gave him experience on the best ways to present his scientific discoveries.
“Having the opportunity to talk with my peers and faculty who understand this research and are contributing to the advancement of science is super exciting,” he said. “When we go to conferences, we are going to have to present posters, and you don’t want that to be your first time doing it, so you need practice presenting.”
The event also allows undergraduates and new graduate students to experience the variety of research happening at Burnet School. Its faculty researchers are focused on finding cures and treatments for the diseases that plague humanity – infectious, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
The Burnett research symposium is a great opportunity for our students and postdocs to showcase their research work to their peers and faculty,” said Dr. Saleh Naser, the Burnett School’s associate director of graduate studies. “It also allows our new students to be introduced to the ongoing research at the Burnett labs.”
Congratulations to the winners in each of the categories:
- Best Ph.D. poster- Anamaria Morales-Alvarez, from Hung Nguyen lab – Metabolic Reprogramming of T Cells via GPR84 Inhibition Improves Cancer Immunotherapy
- Best Postdoc poster- Jichao Ma, from Zixi Jack Cheng lab – Identification of Spinal Afferent Innervation in the Rat Heart: Atria and Ventricles: Anterograde Tracing
- Best M.S. poster- Erika A. Serravalle, from William Self lab – Evaluating the Antimicrobial Properties of Fungus-Derived Xanthoquinodins against Clostridioides difficile
Post Tags
- burnett school of biomedical sciences Influenza Postdoctoral research Research