Research!Louisville wraps up 24th Annual Symposium

Research!Louisville (R!L) held its 24th annual symposium highlighting health sciences research at the Louisville Medical Center Sept. 10-13, showcasing 309 abstracts received from across campus.

Organized by the UofL Office of Health Sciences Research, the symposium offers an opportunity for research scholars in need of gaining essential presentation skills and experience. More than 180 judges with various fields of expertise devoted their time during the three days of poster sessions. Check out the list of R!L 2019 award winners.

The event also included poster presentations by a diverse group of medical, dental, nursing, public health and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, research associates, research staff, bioengineering co-op students, PharmDs, residents, fellows, faculty, NCI-R25 undergraduates and high school scholars.

Seminars, presentations and lectures honed in on a variety of subjects, including nursing research, updates on brain health and Alzheimers, advances in cancer therapeutics/research, exploration of the legacy of housing discrimination and more. The event also included program at the Kentucky Science Center geared toward 7th through 12th grade students with a focus on biomedical sciences. 

R!L's keynote speaker, Cheryl Lyn Walker, PhD, director of the Center for Precision Environmental Health at Baylor College of Medicine, is recognized as one of the preeminent scholars in the field of environmental epigenomics. Her lecture, "Environmental Epigenomics: What the Epigenome can Teach us about Environmental Causes of Disease," is accessible under the keynote tab here.

Other distinguished presenters included:

• Kelly Willenberg, MBA, BSN, CHRC, CHC from Kelly Willenberg, LLC and Michael Roach, JD, Meade Roach & Annulis, LLP
• Jiying Ling, PhD, MS, RN, Michigan State University College of Nursing
• Les Hollie, Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Department of Health and Human Services
• John Wise, Sr., PhD, UofL professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology
• Sam Cotton, PhD, Trager Institute
• Joshua Poe, MA, Acknowledge, Recognize, Connect (ARC) LLC
• Dr. Gaya Amarasinghe, Washington University, St. Louis, UofL Drs. Venkatakrishna Jala, Matt Lawrenz and Juhi Bagaitkar
• And an upcoming presentation by Nancy M. Albert, PhD, Cleveland Clinic's Kaufman Center for Heart Failure, scheduled on Sept. 27th at Baptist Health Louisville

Friday's closing ceremony was held at the Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building with J. Christopher States, PhD, R!L co-chair and associate dean for research officiating the program and introducing sponsor representatives, Robert Keynton, PhD, UofL interim vice president for research and innovation, and Dawn Diehl, director of research compliance & regulatory affairs at Norton Healthcare. States also recognized the sponsorship of a new award, "Excellence in Quality Improvement in Patient Care," by the Kentuckiana Medical Reciprocal Risk Retention Group, represented by Sandy Pugh, RN.

Jon Klein, MD, PhD, R!L co-chair and vice dean for research, presented certificates to the R!L award winners.  NCI-R25 undergraduate award winners were presented certificates by David Hein, PhD, endowed chair, professor and chair, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and La Creis Kidd, PhD, associate professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, and "Our Highest Potential" endowed chair in cancer research. 

More details about the program are available online.