Scientific Importance

First Place Award:  Gavin Arteel, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, “Critical role of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in cholestatic liver injury and fibrosis.”

Second Place:  Russell Prough, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, “PPAR( Phosphorylation Regulates Gene Expression.”

Third Place Award:  David Lominadze, Ph.D., Department of Physiology & Biophysics, “Mechanism of Fibrinogen-Induced Vasoconstriction.”

Innovation in Biotechnology

First Place Award:  Steven Koenig, Ph.D., Department of Bioengineering, “A Myocardial Recovery Device (MRD) to Treat Early Stage Heart Failure Patients!”

Second Place Award:  Kyung Kang, Ph.D., Department of Chemical Engineering, “Nano-Particles for Seamless, Breast Cancer Detection and Hyperthermic Treatment.”
     
Third Place Award:  Eric Berson, Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, “Determination of Shear on Cells Grown in Culture Dishes on a Shaker Table Using Computational Fluid Dynamics.”

Innovation in Behavioral Sciences

First Place:  Dennis Molfese, Ph.D., Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, “Investigating the Relationship Between Early Reading Skills and Phonological Processing.”

Second Place:  Victoria Molfese, Ph.D.,  Department of Teaching & Learning, “The Matthew Effect in Health: Impacts of Sleep, Health Status and Behavior on Preschool Learning.”

Third Place:  Ratnam Seelan, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, “Myo-Inositol Synthase: Identification and Expression of N-Terminal Isoforms in rat tissues.”

Most Promising Basic Science Research

First Place:  Barbara J. Clark, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, “Decreased serum testosterone levels in adult male mice exposed prenatally to arsenite.”

Second Place:  James Graham, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology & Immunology, “Global analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene expression in patient sputum identifies a small gene family encoding secreted factors important for intracellular survival.”

Third Place:  Mohammad Shahidullah, Ph.D.,  Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, “Nitric oxide donors inhibit ciliary epithelial Na-K-ATPase activity and reduce aqueous humor formation and intraocular pressure in the isolated pig eye.”

Potential for Major Clinical Applications

First Place:  Fred Roisen, Ph.D., Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology, “Adult human olfactory epithelium: a source of autologous neural progenitors for transplantation, pharmacological and diagnostic evaluation.”

Second Place:  Damian Laber, M.D., FACP,  Department of  Medicine, “A Phase I Study of AS1411 (AGRO100) in Advanced Cancer.”

Third Place:  Carlton Hornung, PhD, MPH,  Department of Epidemiology & Clinical Investigation Sciences, “Disease management with telephonic home monitoring for congestive heart failure.”

PepsiAmericas Young Faculty Investigator Award 

Volker, Enzmann, Ph.D., Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, “Do excitatory and inhibitory electrical fields result after stimulation of the rabbit retina with a subretinal micro-electrode array (MEA)?”