Scientific Importance

1st Place: Qunwei Zhang, MD, MPH, Ph.D., Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Oxidative-Stress Potency Of Ultrafine Particles In Mouse Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Oxidative-Stress Cells

2nd Place: Swati Joshi-Barve, Ph.D., Department of Medicine / Exposure of Hepatocytes to the Fatty Acid, Palmitate, Stimulates IL-8 Production: Relevance to NASH.

3rd Place: Adam Gaweda, Ph.D., Department of Medicine / Domain Knowledge-Based Peak Detection for High Resolution MALDI-TOF Mass Spectra.

Innovation in Biotechnology

1st Place: Haval Shirwan, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology and Immunology / ProtEx™ Technology as an Alternative to Gene Therapy for Immunomodulation: FasL-Decorated Donor Splenocytes Induce Tolerance to Cardiac

2nd Place: Eric Berson, Ph.D., Department of Chemical Engineering / Validation of Computationally Determined Shear on Cells Grown

3rd Place: Rudolph Parrish, Ph.D., Bioinformatics and Biostatistics / A Multivariate Simulation Approach For Evaluating Microarray Analysis Methods

Innovation in Behavioral Sciences

1st Place: Dennis L. Molfese, Ph.D., Birth Defects Center / Hemispheric Differences in Speech Processing among 4-year-old Males and Females.

2nd Place: Lisa Ruble, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics / Effectiveness of a Social Skills Summer Camp for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

3rd Place: Valerie Crabtree, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics / Parent-Reported Shortened Sleep Duration in Obese Snoring Children

Most Promising Basic Science Research

1st Place: George Mower, Ph.D., Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology / Identification of Disabled-1 as a Candidate Gene for Critical Period Neuroplasticity in Cat and Mouse Visual Cortex.

2nd Place: Shigeo Tamiya, Ph.D., Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences / Src Tyrosine Kinase-mediated Regulation of Na,K-ATPase Activity Following Purinergic Receptor Activation.

3rd Place: Pascale Alard, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology & Immunology / Induction of Dendritic Cell Maturation May Mediate Prevention of Type I Diabetes Development in NOD Mice.

Potential for Major Clinical Applications

1st Place: Ayman El-Baz, Ph.D., Department of Bioengineering / Automatic Detection, Segmentation, and Follow Up of Lung Nodules in Low Dose CT Scans

2nd Place: Joris N. Leijnse, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical Engineering / A Generic Model of the Tendons of Origin and Insertion of the Human Deltoid Muscle

3rd Place: David W. Hein, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology / N-acetyltransferase Genetic Polymorphisms Predispose Cigarette Smokers to Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma, Colorectal Adenoma, and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Leads to Genomic-based Personalized Cancer Prevention Strategies

PepsiAmericas Young Faculty Investigator Award

Barry Row, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics / High Fat/Refined Carbohydrate Diet Augments Brain Expression of Receptors for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) in Rats Exposed to Intermittent Hypoxia