11th Annual Research Retreat Provides PhD Students an Opportunity to Present their Work

KGI held its 11th Annual Research Retreat on January 14, 2016. The event included eight PhD student presentations and two poster sessions and was designed to encourage attendees and participants to learn about ongoing efforts, share ideas, and discuss opportunities to collaborate.

Explaining the importance of the event, Anastasia Levitin, Research Assistant Professor, PhD Program Director said, “Each student has been working diligently on their respective research project and this retreat provides the opportunity for each to showcase their work. This research retreat also allows our PhD students to come together and receive some recognition for all the work they do.”

At the intersection of science and business, the KGI PhD in applied life sciences trains students to leverage strategic thinking in order to expand the transformative potential of the life sciences industry. By supplementing the unique interdisciplinary educational foundation afforded by the Master of Bioscience (MBS) curriculum, PhD students are deeply prepared for research and development positions in a variety of bioscience industrial or academic environments.

Reflecting on her experience as a KGI PhD student, Paola Hernandez stated: “The KGI PhD program has helped me to realize the importance of keeping in mind that the research you perform day by day is going to eventually reach patients. Also, it has been flexible enough to allow me to explore opportunities of collaboration with other institutions in the US and abroad. I’m thankful to my advisor for his constant support and close communication, which is one of the benefits of being part of a small institution like KGI.”

KGI encourages extensive collaboration and the development of critical leadership abilities, as well as an appreciation of the business, management, and ethical issues encountered in the life sciences. Students are afforded additional practical experience through commercialization activities such as writing business plans and conducting market research. A core interdisciplinary educational foundation combined with extensive practical industry experience leads to the development of advanced and innovative scientists.

RESEARCH RETREAT PRESENTATIONS  

1. Exploring Rational Mechanisms for Enhancing Homology-Directed Repair for Gene Targeting (Michael De La Cruz)
2. Polypharmacology: A New Approach of Designing “One Drug Multiple Targets” Therapy (William Leonardi)
3. “SNPs Affecting Host Sensitivity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exotoxin A (Leeor Zilbermintz)  
4. Overlapping and Hierarchical Protein Complexes Identified in Huntington Interactome Provide Clues to Pathogenesis of Huntington’s Disease (Sonali Talele)
5. The Effect of Host Endocytosis Mediators on the Susceptibility of Host to Microbial Pathogens (Kevin Kim)
6. Computational Analysis of miRNA-mRNA Predicted Targets in Prostate Cancer (Paola Hernandez)
7. CFD Modeling of Flow in a Hollow Fiber Tangential 1 Flow Filtration of Perfusion Bioreactor (Flaka Radoniqi)
8. Process Analytical Technology in Continuous Bioprocess Operations – Spectral Analysis of Perfusion Bioreactors (James Miller)
9. *”Crispring” with Calretculin to Understand the Activation of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (Craig Adams)
10. *A Platform to Produce Therapeutic Drugs and Vaccines in Developing Countries (Larry Grill)

*Indicates faculty presenations

RESEARCH RETREAT POSTER SESSION

1. Polypharmacology: A New Approach to Designing “One Drug Multiple Targets” Therapy–W. Leonardi, M. Martchenko
2. SNPs Affecting Host Sensitivity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exotoxin A–L. Zilbermintz, W. Leonardi, M. Martchenko
3. Overlapping and Hierarchical Protein Complexes Identified in Huntington Interactome Provide Clues to Pathogenesis of Huntington’s Disease–S. Talele, Z. Ye, G. Sop-Kamga E. M., M. De La Cruz, B. Patra, S. Chatterjee, A. Gupta, I. Phillips, A. Ray
4. The Effect of Host Endocytosis Mediators on the Susceptibility of Host to Microbial Pathogens–K. Kim, A. Levitin, M. Martchenko
5. Computational Analysis of miRNA-mRNA Predicted Targets in Prostate Cancer–A. P. Hernandez-Perez, F. De Jesús Muñoz-González, O. Resendis-Antonio, A. Ray
6. Exploring the Consequences of Rad51 Overexpression on Homology-Directed Repair of DNA Double Stand Breaks induced by CRISPR-Cas9 Nickases–M. De La Cruz, I. Phillips, C. Adams, A. Ray
7. Large-Scale Manufacturing Platforms for Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Vector Production–J. Aponte
8. DCF Modeling of Flow in a Hollow Fiber Tangential 1 Flow Filtration of Perfusion Bioreactor–F. Radoniqi, S. Wang, J. Coffman, H. Zhang, P. Shamlou
9. Process Analytical Technology in Continuous Bioprocess Operations – Spectral Analysis of Perfusion Bioreactors–J. Miller, J. Coffman, P. Shamlou  
10. Integrated Nucleic Acid Testing for TB Diagnosis in Peripheral Settings–H. Lu, L. Patam, T. Ferguson, K. Herrington, P. Kumar, M. Learmonth, A. Hickerson, K. Weigel, G. Cangelosi,  R. Doebler, A. Niemz
11. Towards Integrated Nucleic Acid Testing for Dengue Diagnosis in Peripheral Settings–D. Pak, H. Lu, L. Patam, P. Kumar, B. Watson, J. Jeorge, K. Leung, A. Young, D. Chao, T. Ferguson, M. Brown,  R. Unger, M. Pike, A. Niemz