by Jared Rutecki

On Friday, Sept. 29, OU-COM holds its fifth annual Research Day, which will take place on the Bricks in Irvine Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Research Day is sponsored by the college’s Research and Scholarly Affairs Committee (RSAC) and showcases the past year’s research activities of the school’s faculty, graduate students, medical students, and undergraduates. The event, says Jack Blazyk, Ph.D., associate dean for research and grants, gives the rest of the university and the Athens community an opportunity to see what is happening at the college.

“Research Day,” says Blazyk, “is one of the many things that we do to promote research at OU-COM. It has proven to be successful and is growing in popularity.”

Research Day recognizes participants for their achievements and the importance of medical research. Another benefit, says Blazyk, is that members of the college and university get to interact, which can spur discussions and collaborations that can led to new research projects.

“We are probably one of the few colleges that has its own Research Day,” says Gillian Ice, Ph.D., M.P.H., RSAC chairwoman. “We’ve sent invitations to the president, the Office of Research and to associate deans for research across the university.”

This year 45 research projects (posters) will be featured. Twenty of those posters represent the work of OU-COM’s medical students. More than half of the student posters at Research Day will feature students' research resultant from participation in the summer’s Research and Scholarly Advancement Fellowship program.

“Each year more and more students get involved in Research Day,” says Ice.

In addition to showcasing their research, students are given awards for the best basic science poster and best clinical poster.

“A panel of judges will make those two selections,” says Blazyk.

“There are two groups of judges for the categories — five judges in each group. One group will rate the clinical posters, and one will rate the basic science posters. The winner of each category will receive a $200 award.”

Awards are made based the following criteria: adherence to poster guidelines, clarity of objectives, creativity, importance, innovativeness, organization, overall impact, presentation, technical soundness and understanding of the subject.

Last year, only one award was given for the best overall student poster. Saima Karim received that honor for her poster, “PORF-2, cyclophilin, and 18 S expression in varying insulin concentrations with and without blockage of insulin receptors with HNMPA-(AM)3.”

Research by OU-COM faculty includes a poster by nationally known Lawrence Witmer, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy, exploring homology of the ear cavities of theropod dinosaurs and their progeny, including birds. He also worked on a number of other projects to be presented Research Day.

With 45 posters exploring a variety of areas, there will be something of interest for anyone attending Research Day. Poster titles and abstracts are available here.