Penn Medicine MD-PhD

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What's New in the MD-PhD Program?

The Combined Degree and Physician Scholar Programs Office
Announces

Penn Med's 3rd Annual
Medical Student Research Day
(includes
prize competition)
March 28, 2008

and

Penn Med's Research Paper Prize Competition

Winning either type of prize is a great honor! All will be announced at graduation and will look great in you CV / Dean's letter. In addition, Research Day prizes will come with gift certificates to Barnes & Noble and some of the research paper prizes include cash awards of several hundred dollars.

The selection process is different for the two types of prizes, and students are welcome to participate in Research Day and in the paper prize competition.

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Look at the latest publications of our students.

Below is a list of recent and upcoming dissertation defenses:

2007-2008 DEFENSES to date:

JANUARY

Matt Scharf (neuro)
January 3, 2:00pm, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan Bldg.
Role of AMPH in Sleep-Wake
advisor:  Dr. Allan Pack

DECEMBER

Jing Wang (CAMB)
December 3, 1:30pm, CRB Austrian Auditorium
"Regulation of circadian rhythm and adipogenesis by the nuclear receptor Rev-erb alpha"
advisor:  Dr. Mitch Lazar

Prin Amorapanth (neuro)
Dec 3 - 1:30pm, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan Bldg.)
Where Are They? The Neural Systems Underlying the Language of Space
mentor:  Dr. Anjan Chatterjee

Tamar Gur (neuro)
December 4, 10am, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan) 
"The Role of CREB Family Transcription Factors in Depression, Anxiety, and Antidepressant Response"
advisor:  Dr. Julie Blendy

NOVEMBER

Neel Singhal (neuro)
November 2, 2:30, 140 John Morgan (Barchi Library)
"The role of resistin in the CNS regulation of glucose and energy homeostasis"
advisor:  Dr. Rex Ahima

John Gordan (CAMB)
November 20, 2 pm, JMB Class of '62
" HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha have antagonistic effects on c-Myc: implications for
normal and transformed cell proliferation"
advisor:  Dr. Celeste Simon

Andy Intlekofer (Immunology)
November 26, 3:00, BRB auditorium
Transcriptional control of CD8+ T cell differentiation: a tale of two T-box factors
advisor:  Dr. Steve Reiner

OCTOBER

Frances High (CAMB)
Oct. 4, 1:15pm., CRB Austrian Aud
"Notch Signaling in Cardiac Development"
advisor:  Dr. Jon Epstein

Dexter Hadley (GCB)
Oct. 8, 2:00pm, CRB auditorium
Genome-scale annotation of genetic factors underlying neurotransmission & neuropsychiatric disease
advisors:  Dr. Junhyong Kim and Dr. Maja Bucan

Doug Lin (CAMB)
Oct. 26 at 2:00pm in BRB auditorium
"Interplay between SCF and CDK complexes in the control of cellular proliferation"
advisor: Dr. J. Alan Diehl

SEPTEMBER

Andrew Trister (Bioengineering
)
Sept. 18, 10:30am, in Wu and Chen Auditorium in Levine Hall
"Nanoscale particle binding in silico: Hiv docking and multivalent recruitment under flow"
advisor: Dr. Dan Hammer

Matt Kayser (neuro)
Sept.. 20, 10:00am, 140 John Morgan Bldg.
"EphB Receptors Direct Formation of a Subset of CNS Excitatory Synapses"
advisor:  Dr. Matthew Dalva

2006-2007 DEFENSES

AUGUST

Jennifer Orthmann Murphy (neuro)
August 29, 1:30pm Barchi Library (140 JMB)
"The role of Cx47 in gap junction coupling between astrocytes and oligodendrocytes"
advisor:  Dr. Steve Scherer

MAY

Pallavi Gopal (neuro)
May 21, 10am, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan)
"Guiding non-radial cell migration"
advisor: Dr. Jeff Golden

FEBRUARY

Tina Franklin-Dumont (CAMB)
Wednesday, Feb 7th, 10am, Class of '62, John Morgan Bldg.
"Counting up off schedule:  Investigating the timing of developmental transitions in the Drosophila testis"
advisor:  Dr. Steve DiNardo

NOVEMBER

John Northrop (CAMB)
November 2, 2:00pm, in 209 Johnson Pav
"CD4 T help dependent epigenetic remodeling in memory CD8 T cells"
advisor:  Dr. Hao Shen

OCTOBER

Daria (Dasha) Babushok (CAMB)
Oct 31, 2006, 2pm, Class of 62 Auditorium, John Morgan Bldg.
"Role of Line-1 retrotransposon in genome evolution:  mechanisms of L1 integration and L1-mediated creation of new genes"
advisor: Dr. Haig Kazazian

SEPTEMBER

Melissa Middleton (Immunology)
Sept 8, 2pm, Austrian Auditorium, CRB
"12/15-lipoxygenase and the myeloid cell: A chronicle of oxidation, inflammation, and leukemogenesis"
advisor:  Dr. Ellen Pure

P. Peter Ghoroghchian (Bioengineering)
Sept 8, 3:00pm, Wu and Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall (3330 Walnut)
"Emissive Polymer Vesicles: Soft Nanoscale Probes for in vivo Optical Imaging"
advisor:  Dr. Dan Hammer and Dr. Michael Therin
 
Ben Schwarz (Immunology)

Sept 11, 11:00, 251 BRB II/III
"Trafficking from the bone marrow to the thymus: a prerequisite for T lymphopoiesis"
advisor:  Dr. Avinash Bhandoola

2005-2006 DEFENSES

JUNE

Michael Buckstein (CAMB)
Thursday, June 15, 1:00 pm, 252 BRB 11/111
"A Novel HPLC Based Approach to Characterizing and Quantitating Nucleotide Pools in Bacteria"
advisor: Dr. Harvey Rubin

Darren Hess (Neuroscience)
June 2, 9am, Barchi Library (140 John Morgan Bldg).
"The role of neurotrophin signaling in development and maintenance of neuromuscular synapses"
advisor: Dr. Rita Balice Gordon

Tessa Sundaram (Bioengineering)
June 5, 2:00pm, 1412 BRB 11/111
"Quantitative Regional Assessment of Pulmonary Parenchymal Dynamics Using Image Registration and Analysis Techniques"
advisor:  Dr. Jim Gee

MAY

Evan Ray (CAMB)
May 5, 3:00pm, B-400 Richards
"Intracellular Cations Modulate Kv Channel Recovery From Slow Inactivation"
advisor:  Dr. Carol Deutsch

APRIL

Ben Olenchock (Immunology)
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 1:00-3:00 PM JMB Class of '62 Auditorium
"Regulated Diacylglycerol Metabolism During Antigen Receptor Stimulation of T Cells and Mast Cells"
advisor: Dr. Gary Koretzky

MARCH

Gina Clemens (Immunology)
March 20, 2pm, Austrian Auditorium, CRB
"Tyrosine Kinase-Associated Receptor Signaling in Neutrophils: Regulation by Adaptor Molecules In Vitro and In Vivo"
advisor:  Dr. Gary Koretzky

Aaron Nelson (CAMB)

March 21, 1pm, Class of '62, John Morgan Building
" Local Mucosal Responses to Bacterial Colonization"

advisor:  Dr. Jeff Weiser

FEBRUARY

Laila Dadvand (Neuro)
Feb 6, 1:00, 140 John Morgan Bldg, JMB
"Divergent Effect of Sleep on the Loss and Recovery of Deprived Eye Responses in the Developing Visual Cortex"
advisor:  Dr. Michael Stryker (secondary advisor, Dr. Marcos Frank)

Joanne Jang (CAMB)
Feb 16, 2:00, Reunion Auditorium, JMB
"The Contribution of Ras to MYC and Wnt-induced Tumor Progression"
advisor:  Dr. Lewis Chodosh

JANUARY

Lara Wine Lee (Neuro)
Jan 19th, 1:30, Abramson Bldg., 7th Floor Center Conference Room
"The Role of Signaling through BMP Type I Receptors in Central Nervous System Development"
advisor: Dr.   E. Bryan Crenshaw

DECEMBER

Evan Farkash (Immun)
Dec 2, 10:00, Reunion Hall, JMB
"Keeping L1s in Line: Genomic Defenses Against Retrotransposition"
advisor: Dr. Nina Luning Prak

Chris Vakoc (CAMB)
Dec 7, 1:30, Austrian Auditorium, CRB
"Chromatin Loops and Methylated Histones Associated with Gene Activation"
advisor: Dr. Gerd Blobel

Collin Blakely (CAMB)

Dec 8, 3:00, Reunion Hall, John Morgan Building
"Developmental Events Influence Breast Cancer Risk: Insights from MYC, Stat5 and Pregnancy
advisor: Dr. Lewis Chodosh

Deepak Sampathu (Neuro)

Dec 15, 2:00, Reunion Hall, John Morgan Building
"Biochemical Studies of Pathological Inclusions in Alpha-Synucleinopathies and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration with Ubiquitin-Positive Inclusions"
advisor: Dr. Virginia M.Y. Lee

Chelsea Pinnix (CAMB)

Dec 16, 11:00, BRB auditorium
"Notch1 Activation Confers Transforming Properties to Primary Human Melanocytes and Promotes Human Melanoma Progression
advisor: Dr. Meenard Herlyn

Marcin Imielinski (GCB)
Dec 19, 10:00, 1311 Blockley Hall
"In silico analysis of microbial biosynthetic capabilities at the genome-scale"
advisor: Dr. Harvey Rubin

Carl Davis (CAMB)
Dec. 20, 3:00, 209 Johnson
"Interactions between West Nile virus and the C-type lectins DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR"
advisor: Dr. Bob Doms

NOVEMBER

Marc Meulener (CAMB)
November 23, 2pm, 253 BRB
”Functional and Biochemical Characterization of Parkinsons Disease Gene DJ-1 in Drosophila”
advisor: Dr. Nancy Bonini

Jessica Dworet (CAMB)
November 2, 10am, 251 BRB
”The role of CREB in thyroid cell survival”
advisor:  Dr. Judy Meinkoth

Michael Higley (Neuroscience)
Friday, October 28, 3:00pm, 140 John Morgan Building (Barchi library)
Neural Mechanisms of spatiotemporal sensory integration in the rat barrel system
advisor:  Dr. Diego Contreras

Michael Silverman (Immunology)
Wednesday, October 26th, 1:00pm, Austrian Auditorium, CRB
”SLP-76:  Complex regulation of FceRI signaling in mast cells”
advisor:  Dr. Gary Koretzky

Farhad Abtahian (CAMB)
September 23, 3:30, class of '62 auditorium, John Morgan Bldg
"Regulation of blood and lymphatic vascular separation by Syk and SLP-76"
advisor:  Dr. Gary Koretzky

Maria Chen (CAMB)
September 20, 10:00, 253 BRB II/III
"Compartmentalization and variation of envelope gp160 from various brain regions of SIVmac239-infected macaques"
advisor:  Dr. Francisco Gonazalez Scarano

Ellen Krasik (Bioengineering)
September 16, 8:00am, Vagelos 5000
"Simulation of neutrophil adhesion under flow and the transition from rolling to firm adhesion"
advisor:  Dr. Daniel Hammer

Bhaskar Srivastava (Immunology)
September 8, 2:00, BRB 252
"The development and maintenance of marginal zone B cells"
advisor:  Dr. Dave Allman