The UNMC Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held its annual research symposium last week.
The daylong event was highlighted by a keynote presentation on autophagy from Qing Zong, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine/biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas.
UNMC’s Kaustubh Datta, Ph.D., gave an overview of autophagy — the basic catabolic mechanism that involves cell degradation of unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components through the actions of lysosomes — and the research seminar, and post-doctoral students gave presentations as part of the event. In addition, third-year graduate students gave presentations, and there was a poster presentation in the afternoon.
“The event gives us a chance to focus not only on an interesting and impactful topic in autophagy, but also to spotlight our exceptional students,” said Surinder Batra, Ph.D., chair of the department. “There has been some excellent work done this year, and this is an opportunity to celebrate that.”
The event closed with an awards ceremony, including a special presentation to Judith Christman, Ph.D., in recognition of her long service to the department.
Award winners included:
Outstanding Achievements in Graduate Studies:
Srustidhar Das, Ph.D.
Outstanding Comprehensive Exam:
Seema Chugh
Highest Grade Point Average – First Year Student:
Saswati Karmakar
Annual Research Symposium – Best Oral Presentations:
- Ashley Mohr, Ph.D.
- Priya Pai
- Shuwei Xie
Annual Research Symposium-Best Poster Presentation:
- Samikshan Dutta, Ph.D.
- Hanjun Li
Midwest Student Biomedical Research Forum
- James Reinecke
- Suhasini Joshi
- Kasturi Banerjee