Surgery Research Recognition Day
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
This spring, we are excited to bring together and showcase the work of our research technicians, residents, faculty, staff, and community partners at Surgery Research Recognition Day.
This event will highlight key advancements in basic, translational, clinical, and health informatics research, as well as research aimed at enhancing surgical training, and will reflect the depth of our department's research, its impact on patient care, and the collaborations that extend across the institution and beyond.
Award Nominations
Research staff excellence award: recognizes exceptional contributions to clinical and laboratory research studies within the Department of Surgery and celebrates research staff who demonstrate sustained excellence in protocol implementation, team management, and complex problem-solving.
Research support excellence award: celebrates individuals who go above and beyond in award management, regulatory support, and fostering collaboration to enhance the rigor and feasibility of research projects.
Research mentoring award: honors faculty members who provide exceptional mentorship to students, trainees, and early-career faculty, guiding them toward independent research careers and academic success.
Abstract Submissions
Eligibility:
All faculty, staff, students, and community researchers are invited to present their work. As in past years, we hope to have broad representation from each division and invite our adjunct faculty members to participate.
Authors will be notified upon acceptance of their selection for a 5-10 minute oral presentation or 3-5 minute rapid fire digital poster presentation based on indicated interest. The first author will receive an acceptance email detailing the presentation type and preparation instructions. Conventional posters will be available for viewing during networking and lunch sessions. Further details on agenda will be shared closer to the date.
Abstract Posters Winners Archive
2025
2025 Award Winners
Research Mentoring Award – Top Honor: Dr. James Harmon
Research Mentoring Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Julia Davydova
Research Mentoring Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Daniel Leslie
Research Staff Excellence Award – Top Honor: Dr. Parthasarathy Rangarajan
Research Staff Excellence Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Bat-Erdene Namsrai
Research Staff Excellence Award – Honorable Mention: Jody Janecek
Research Support Excellence Award– Top Honor: Nicholas Lemke
Research Support Excellence Award– Honorable Mention: Kelli Tourand
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Clinical Science and Education – Top Honor: Madeline Wethington and James Villar Mead – Enhanced Transesophageal Echocardiography Training by Utilizing 3D Printed Models Derived from Real Human Anatomies
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Clinical Science and Education – Honorable Mention: Dr. Sean Nguyen – Sigmoid Volvulus and Outcomes of Surgical Technique
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Basic & Translational Science – Top Honor: Sydney Phu – Urinary cytokine and chemokine profiling enables noninvasive, injury-specific monitoring of renal injury in nonhuman primates
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Basic & Translational Science – Honorable Mention: Chris Basting- Investigating biomarkers associated with immunological non-response in people with HIV
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Presentation: Kerri Barnes – Correlation between Vitamin D levels and blood calcium
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Presentation: Zach Leslie – Predictors of 90-day Readmission and Morbidity Following Liver Transplantation for Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Moretta Nielson – Beyond the Scale: Maping body composition changes in GLP-1 treated nonhuman primates
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Kai Bratten – Postoperative Stroke Risk and 30-Day Readmission Profiles After Carotid Endarterectomy vs. Carotid Artery Stenting: A National Readmission Database Analysis (2016-2022)
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Jordan Sauve – Successful short-term extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal via modification of an existing intrajugular dialysis catheter in a patient with ARDS: A case report
Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation: Anna Tran – Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Induced Hyperexpression of MHC I and II in Human, Rhesus and Cynomolgus Macaque Islets Increases their Immunogenicity
Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation: Sierra Palmer – The impact of cooperative limb presentation training on neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of cynomolgus macaques in the laboratory environment
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Alexander Troester – Microbiota Transplant Therapy Effectively Reconstitutes the Gut Microbiome After Colorectal Surgery
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Jose Foppiani – Post-Traumatic Breast Implant Complications: Insights from the Nationwide Readmission Database
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Michael Dryden – A Novel Anti-CD154 Non-antibody Fusion Protein Facilitates Long Term Pig to Primate Kidney Xenograft Survival
Outstanding Fellow/Post Doc Presentation: Dr. Hunter Oppler – Mitigating the impact of experimentally-imposed factors as a variable in stress-dependent perturbations of the primate immune system to enhance rigor, reproducibility, clinical translation, and welfare
Outstanding Fellow/Post Doc Presentation: Dr. Koray Potel – Adjunctive Stem Cell-Based Therapies Resolve Persistent Cardiac Dysfunction in a Large Animal Model of Surgical Revascularization
Outstanding Staff Presentation: Dr. Parthasarathy Rangarajan – Perturbations in Transplanted Islets are Critical for Allo and Auto Immune Response in Islet Transplant Recipients
Outstanding Staff Presentation: Dr. Margarita Romanenko – Preclinical Models for Oncolytic Adenoviruses
2023
Clinical/Education Research
"The Importance of p12INK4a: A Biomarker of Frailty in Liver Transplant Recipients"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Chemically induced perimenopause increases MAP in a salt sensitive model of hypertension."
Travel Award: $750
"Missing, not Forgotten: Missing Data by Cancer Center Accreditation in Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results"
Travel Award: $500
"The Development of a Novel CTLA-4lg Fusion Protein for use in Non-Human Primate Transplant models"
Travel Award: $500
Basic/Translational Research
"Intestinal Inflammation has a Greater Impact on Female Fertility than Natural Microbial Exposure in a Co-housed Mouse Model"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Multi-Tissue-Organoid Derived Exosomes for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis"
Travel Award: $750
2022
Clinical/Education Research
"Assess readability of FDA labeling for breast implants"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Loss of Protection from Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in T-cell Deficient SSCD247-/- Rats Enables the Isolation of the Pathological Effects of Renal T-cells from Hypertension"
Travel Award: $750
"Characterization of gut microbiome on tacrolimus metabolism in transplanted nonhuman primates"
Travel Award: $500
Basic/Translational Research
"Evaluation of Minnesota Score in the Allocation of Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation During Resource Scarcity"
Travel Award: $1,000
"The Impact of the Kras and ApcΔ468 Oncogenes on the Colorectal Cancer Microbiome"
Travel Award: $750