The prolific research efforts of more than 100 graduate students from Wayne State University shined brightly at the School of Medicine's annual Chuan-Pu Lee, Ph.D., Endowed Graduate Student Research Presentation Day, held Oct. 19 throughout Scott Hall and the Margherio Family Conference Center.

The student-organized event is in its 21st year of showcasing the diverse biomedical research of graduate students across all biological disciplines from the School of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the College of Engineering.

The event is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Lee, who died in 2016. The endowed funds provide awards and prizes. Dr. Lee retired in 2011 after 36 years on the School of Medicine faculty. She later served as an advisor for the then-Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was a strong advocate for WSU graduate students, offering pre- and post-doctoral travel awards to help offset the cost of national and international conferences.

"Professor Lee, a generous philanthropist, always felt that it was vital to increase awareness of the research activity performed by graduate students," said Daniel Walz, Ph.D., associate dean of Research and Graduate Programs.

Additional sponsors include the WSU Office of the Vice President for Research; School of Medicine Office of the Vice Dean of Research; Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry; Cancer Biology Graduate Program; Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. The 2017 organizing committee included students Molly Estill, Jordan Zhou, Rayanne Burl, Sophia Chaudhry, Matt Fountain, Tushar Ganjawala, Hasini Kalpage, Andrew Jerome, William Close, Danielle Meyer, Ruta Jog and Tijana Lozo.

The event spotlighted 15 oral presentations, 50 poster presentations and a keynote address from Diane Mathis, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mathis presented "Aire: a genius transcription factor controlling immunological tolerance." The Mathis laboratory addresses the mechanisms that control immunologic tolerance to self-antigens and how failures in self-tolerance can lead to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as type-1 diabetes, arthritis and autoimmune polyglandular syndrome.

An awards ceremony followed her presentation. The student winners were:

BEST ORAL PRESENTATION

First place: Joanna Sutton, Department of Pharmacology
Second place (tie): Anthony Guastella, Department of Oncology; and Judith Ingles, Department of Physiology

BEST POSTER PRESENTATION

First place: Kendall Muzzarelli, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry
Second place (tie): Dhanushka Munkanatta, Department of Chemistry; and Ekta Shah, Department of Pharmacology

HONORABLE MENTION RECIPIENTS

James Block, Department of Oncology
Kayla Connor, Department of Oncology
Lana Grasser, Translational Neurosciences Program
Ruta Jog, Department of Pathology
Hasini Kalpage, Molecular Genetics and Genomics Program
Morenci Manning, Department of Oncology
Shashwat Mishra, Department of Biological Sciences
Fidelis Ndombera, Department of Chemistry
Carthis Rajagopalan, Department of Physiology
Jeremy Shields, Translational Neurosciences Program