O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center hosts 23rd annual Research Retreat at Regions Field
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB hosted its 23rd annual Research Retreat Friday, October 13, at Regions Field. More than 350 attendees joined the day-long event.
Director Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., opened the retreat with remarks that noted the day’s activities. Speakers included trainees and staff and were organized into four sessions: personalized medicine and cancer care, preclinical imaging, immunotherapy and cancer therapeutics. In addition, keynote speaker Jason Lewis, Ph.D., from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, presented “Theranostics: Translating Concepts into Patients.”
The poster sessions included more than 165 research posters, as well as posters from several O’Neal Shared Resources describing their services. In the student category, prizes were awarded to Lauren Nassour-Caswell, B.S., (first place); Patrick Song, B.S., and Covenant Adeboboye, B.Sc., M.Sc., (second place); and Charles Kuhlmann, B.S., and Caitlin Harvey, B.S., (third place); with honorable mention to Whitney Neal, M.A.
In the non-student category, prizes were awarded to Brandon Metge, M.S., (first place); with honorable mentions going to Andrew Burns and Bohye Park, Ph.D.
The Seng-jaw Soong Award for Excellence in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Research was awarded to Nicole Reh, M.D.
The Albert F. LoBuglio Distinguished Faculty Award was presented to Isabel Scarinci, Ph.D., MPH, for her outstanding contributions to the research mission of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. Scarinci, whose work focuses on cancer prevention and control among low-income populations, is a senior scientist at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The retreat planning committee included Narendra Wajapeyee, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Research and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics; Mehmet Akce, M.D., Associate Professor of Hematology & Oncology; Grayson Gimblet, MSTP student of Radiology; Ksenia Matlawska-Wasowska, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology; Krystle Ong, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Trainee of Molecular & Cellular Pathology; Satoru Osuka, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery; Joelle Saad, Ph.D. Candidate of Neuroscience; Courtney Swain, MSTP student of Molecular & Cellular Pathology; and Lisa Zubkoff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine.
See photos from the Research Retreat here.
—Holly Dunn