Acknowledgments CLIMB UP would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors:

July 30, 2019

Buffalo, New York

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF),

American Society for Pharmacology and

Experimental Therapeutics

Jackson Heart Study

Tougaloo College

Special thanks to our phenomenal group of UB faculty who took the time

to mentor CLIMB UP students this summer. Your dedication to the next

generation of scientists is the driving force behind our program, and we

are so very grateful!

CLIMB PRO

(Professional)

Jacobs School of

Medicine and

Biomedical Sciences

Order of Events Tuesday 30, 2019

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Oral Presentation Session I

403 Hayes Hall

10:30AM – 11:15AM: Poster Session I (afternoon oral presenters) 4th floor Hayes Hall Atrium

11:20AM – 12:30PM: Oral Presentation Session II

403 Hayes Hall

1:00PM – 1:30PM: Lunch

(all are welcome) 4th floor Hayes Hall Atrium

1:30PM – 3:00PM: Oral Presentation III

403 Hayes Hall

3:00PM – 3:45PM: Poster Session II (morning oral presenters) 4th floor Hayes Hall Atrium

3:50PM – 5:50PM: Oral Presentation Session IV

403 Hayes Hall

6:00PM: Announcement of UB Summer Research Day Presenter and Conclusion

5:20 PM Amanda Gamwo Examining Sleep in Military Families: Do Male Soldiers' Characteristics Significantly Impact Their Female Civilian Partners’ Sleep?

Summer Mentor: Gregory G. Homish, PhD Department of Community Health and Health Behavior Undergraduate Institution: University of Pittsburgh

Major: Natural Sciences Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA Academic Aspirations: My goal is to attend medical school to pursue career interests in endocrinology, psychiatry, infectious disease or ophthalmology. Personal Motto: “To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."

- Buddha

2019 CLIMB UP Leadership

Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, Director

Joanna Barthelemy, PhD, CLIMB Program Coordinator

Anyango Kamina, PhD, iSEED Scientific Workforce Specialist

Jordan Hall, iSEED Coordinator

David Shubert, PhD, Lab Skills Course Instructor

Deborah Timineri, Lab Skills Course Instructor

Research Communication Workshop Mentors Gloria Aidoo-Frimpong Rasheen Powell Joanna Barthelemy, PhD Mohamed Sharif Natalie Jay David Shubert, PhD Anyango Kamina, PhD Debbie Timineri Jennifer Martin, PhD Jamal Williams

Contact Us Phone: 716.829.4717 or 716.829.2493 Email: climb@buffalo.edu Web: www.buffalo.edu/climb/climb-up

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 4:50 PM Lauren Heinzinger IL-12 Delivered by Multilamellar Liposomes Mitigates

Upregulation of Checkpoint Molecules on Human Tumor Specific T Cells in the Tumor

Microenvironment

Summer Mentor: Sathy V. Balu-Iyer, PhD Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Biological Sciences and English Hometown: Eastchester, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: Physician-Scientist and Novelist Personal Motto: “Never let good be good enough”

5:00 PM Mebrhit Meheretab Behavioral Characteristics of Wild Type & APP/PS1

Mice

Summer Mentor: Ying Xu, MD, PhD

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Undergraduate Institution: D’Youville College

Major: Chemistry

Hometown: Buffalo, NY

Academic Aspirations: PhD in Pharmacy

Personal Motto: “With God everything is possible!”

School of Public Health and Health Professions 5:10 PM Malaike Addo Usability Study Associated with Devices Used in

Homes

Summer Mentor: James A. Lenker, PhD, OTR/L, ATP Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo

Major: Public Health

Hometown: Bronx, NY

Career Aspirations: Administrative Health Attorney

Personal Motto: “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places that you'll go" - Dr. Seuss

Oral Presentations

CLIMB PRO (Professional)

9:00 AM Tanzania Bussey

Does Vasopressin Act in the Anterior Hypothalamus to Regulate Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Rats?

Summer Mentor: Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Pharmacology and Toxicology Hometown: Staten Island, NY Career Aspirations: Scientist and Restaurant Business Owner Personal Motto: “Become the change you want to see in the world”

9:10 AM Patrick Comerford

The Impact of Stress on Health Outcomes in the LGB Population: Parental Approval vs. Disapproval of

Sexual Orientation

Summer Mentor: Beatrice L. Wood, PhD, ABPP

Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics & Psychology Undergraduate Institution: Canisius College Major: Biochemistry Hometown: Vestal, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology Personal Motto: “Treat yourself”

9:20 AM Ifrah Hassan MACROPHAGE IMMUNOMODULATION BY BETA- GLUCAN NANOPARTICLES

Summer Mentor: Jessica L. Reynolds, PhD, Department of Medicine Undergraduate Institution: Binghamton University

Major: Integrative Neuroscience Hometown: Utica, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: MD/PhD with a concentration on Global Health Intervention Personal Motto: “It’s not the choices we make in life that define us, it’s our commitment to them.”

9:30 AM Msaada Nankumba

Designing a Study to Test an Outpatient Benzodiazepine Detoxification Protocol in a Methadone Agonist Therapy Program

Summer Mentor: Linda Kahn, PhD, and Arthur Weissman, MD Department of Family Medicine, Primary Care Research Institute

Undergraduate Institution: Canisius College Major: Biology Hometown: Buffalo, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: MBA and MD/PhD (I'm interested in being a physician-scientist and an entrepreneur) Personal Motto: “Everything is possible; there is no limit to what I can achieve as long as I put in the work and time.”

9:40 AM Maya Owens

Effect of Mood Disorders on Pregnant Women's

Journey through Multicomponent Intervention Smoking Cessation Program

Summer Mentor: Xiaozhong Wen, PhD

Department of Pediatrics Undergraduate Institution: Howard University Major: Clinical Laboratory Science Hometown: Buffalo, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: Physician + Public Health Advocate Personal Motto: “Nothing will work unless you do." - Maya Angelou

9:50 AM Dejá Pegues Role of Exercise on Lupus Kidney

Summer Mentor: Jessy Alexander, PhD Undergraduate Institution: Tougaloo College Major: Biology Hometown: Gulfport, MS Academic Aspirations: Become a Pediatrician Personal Motto: “Everything happens for a reason. Trust God's timing.”

4:20 PM Beatrice Gonzalez

Identification of the ganglioside receptors on Breast Cancer cells required by the bacterial toxin LT-IIcto

promoter cytotoxicity

Summer Mentor: Terry D. Connell, PhD Department of Microbiology and Immunology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo

Major: Biological Sciences Hometown: Westchester, NY

Academic/Career Aspirations: MD/PhD Personal Motto: “I am the voice for the all the little girls that need someone to look up to. As I always say, chase your dreams.”

4:30 PM Yuribel Rosario Protein Purification and Extraction of Gis2 and Zfn9

from Cryptococcus neoformans

Summer Mentor: Tilman Baumstark, PhD Department of Microbiology and Immunology Undergraduate Institution: Mercy College

Major: Biology Hometown: Bronx, NY Career Aspirations: Infectious Disease Specialist Personal Motto: "If it was easy, I wouldn't be doing it"

School of Nursing

4:40 PM Amanda Pollard The Comparison of Subjective and Objective Sleep

measures in Lung cancer patient survivors with insomnia

Summer Mentor: Grace Dean, PhD, RN Undergraduate Institution: Fisk University

Major: Psychology Hometown: Chicago, IL Academic Aspirations: After graduating from Fisk University I plan on applying to a nursing school and doing an accelerated nursing program. Personal Motto: “Live life to the fullest and without regret”

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 3:50 PM Hannah Dougherty Using Electrospinning to Model Intracranial Flow Diversion Designs Summer Mentor: Ciprian N. Ionita, PhD Department of Biomedical Engineering

Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Biomedical Engineering Hometown: Syracuse, NY Academic Aspirations: Pursue a PhD in Neurological

Biophysics Personal Motto: “You can't always be the smartest in the room, but you can be the one that works the hardest.”

4:00 PM Makayla Roma

Early Predictors of Functional Decline

Summer Mentor: Sabrina Casucci, PhD Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Industrial Engineering, Economics Hometown: Sanborn, NY Academic Aspirations: Attend graduate school to receive a PhD

in Industrial Engineering

Personal Motto: “Vision without action is just a daydream.”

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 4:10 PM Destinee Bledsoe The role of p38γ on Oligodendrocyte Pregenitors Cells (OPC) differentiation and remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis

Summer Mentor: M. Laura Feltri, MD

Department of Biochemistry Undergraduate Institution: Tougaloo College Major: Chemistry Hometown: Clinton, MS Career Aspirations: Become a Physician Personal Motto: “You can't control things that happen to you, but you can control how you react to them.”

CLIMB Undergraduate Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (UBIDS) 10:00 AM Leydi Hernandez Fernandez Ectopic expression of human aryl sulfotransferase

(SULT4A1) in probiotic species

Summer Mentor: Richard J. Quigg, MD

Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Biology Hometown: Long Island, NY Career Aspirations: Trauma Surgeon Personal Motto: “She designed a life she loved”

10:10 AM Cassondra Lyman

DeepGRAI: The Clinical Translation of MRI Techniques

Summer Mentor: Michael G. Dwyer, III, PhD Department of Neurology and Biomedical Informatics Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Psychology Hometown: Binghamton, NY Academic Aspirations: PhD in Clinical Psychology or Neuroscience Personal Motto: “Adventure is out there!”

10:20 AM Katie Maraszek

The Presence and Location of Podocytes in Glomeruli as Affected by Diabetes

Summer Mentor: Pinaki Sarder, PhD

Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Biochemistry Hometown: East Aurora, NY Career Aspirations: Once I am finished with my undergraduate education, I want to pursue my PhD. My overall career goal is to perform medical research, specifically on diseases and how they affect the body. Personal Motto: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts" - Winston Churchill

11:20 AM Marvellous Oke A Machine Learning Approach to Predicting the

Possibility of Seizures after an Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH)

Summer Mentor: Jason M. Davies, MD, PhD

Department of Neurosurgery Undergraduate Institution: Morgan State University Major: Psychology, Chemistry Minor (Pre-Med) Hometown: Marlboro, MD Career Aspirations: I aspire to become a Physician-Scientist Personal Motto: “To Preserve through all hindrances; To be Determined to reach my goal; To Motivate others around me.”

11:30 AM Michael Piskozub Overlap Graph Assembly of MinION™ Metagenomic DNA Reads

Summer Mentor: Jaroslaw Zola, PhD

Department of Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Statistics Hometown: Maspeth, NY Career Aspirations: Bioinformatics software engineer Personal Motto: Why is it that people with bad breath always have a secret to tell you?

11:40AM Dominic Romero

Quantifying the adherence of domain ontologies to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO): A case study with the Cancer Cell Ontology

Summer Mentor: Werner Cuesters, MD

Department of Biomedical Informatics Undergraduate Institution: Fayetteville State University Major: Computer Science Hometown: Lumber Bridge, NC Academic/Career Aspirations: Obtain my PhD in the computer science field and become a business owner Personal Motto: “Life is choice-driven, self-accountability is important, you choose if you want to succeed, nobody else.”

2:30 PM Jasmine McClain

Treating PTSD using Narrative Exposure Therapy

Summer Mentor: Jennifer Read, PhD

Department of Psychology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Psychology Hometown: Rochester, NY Academic/Career Aspirations: To become a psychotherapist

after earning my MSW and PhD in social work.

Personal Motto: “Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.”

School of Dental Medicine

2:40 PM Jalen Bonitto

Mapping the Effects of Photobiomodulation Therapy on Oral Keratinocyte Cells

Summer Mentor: Praveen R. Arany, PhD

Department of Oral Biology Undergraduate Institution: SUNY Old Westbury Major: Biology Hometown: Queens, NY Academic Aspirations: Go to Dental School Personal Motto: “Failure is a necessary part of growth”

2:50 PM Genesis Pagán Cabrera

EXAMINE THE ROLE OF SAP-MEDIATED VIRULENCE OF CANDIDA ALBICANS IN A BETA-AMYLOID

EXPRESSING MODEL OF ENORHABDITIS ELEGANS

Summer Mentor: Mira Edgerton, DDS, PhD

Department of Oral Biology Undergraduate Institution: Antillean Adventist University, Mayaguez, PR Major: Biology Hometown: Cabo Rojo, PR Academic Aspirations: DDS/PhD Personal Motto: “Don’t stop until you’re proud”

2:00PM Lauren Todoro

Characterizing Protein Interaction Using Fluorescence

Summer Mentor: D. Fernando Estrada, PhD

Department of Biochemistry Undergraduate Institution: SUNY Geneseo Major: Biology Hometown: East Aurora, NY Academic Aspirations: I hope to attend Jacobs School of Medicine to earn my medical degree and specialize in neurology to study autism and other developmental disorders Personal Motto: “Everything happens for a reason”

2:10PM Alaina Wojciechowski

Behavioral Effects of Two Neuropeptide S Receptor Agonists in Rats

Summer Mentor: Stewart Clark, PhD

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Pharmacology and Toxicology Hometown: Clarence, NY Career Aspirations: Research Scientist Personal Motto: “Don't tell people your dreams - Show them”

Institute for Strategic Enhancement of Educational Diversity (iSEED)

College of Arts and Sciences

2:20PM Nashali Massa

Effects of Post-weaning Social Isolation on Social Circuits

Summer Mentor: Matthew Paul, PhD

Department of Psychology Undergraduate Institution: University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Major: Psychology Hometown: Puerto Rico Career Aspirations: PhD in Neuroscience

11:50AM Marc Schulte

Anti-obesity therapeutics discovery using CANDOCK to target MAF1 inhibitors

Summer Mentor: Ram Samudrala, PhD

Department of Biomedical Informatics Undergraduate Institution: Canisius College Major: Computer Science and History Hometown: Perrysburg, OH Career Aspirations: Software Engineer Personal Motto: “Do, or do not. There is no try”

12:00PM Anisha Singh

Concurrent Prescription Opioids and Stimulant Use and Their Adverse Events

Summer Mentor: Peter L. Elkin, MD, MACP, FACMI, FNYAM

Department of Biomedical Informatics

Undergraduate Institution: Stony Brook University Major: Biology Hometown: New City, NY Academic Aspirations: Going to Medical School Personal Motto: "It is the quality of one’s convictions that determines success, not the number of followers" - Remus Lupin

12:10PM Mackenzie Smith

Ontological Analysis of MS-PRO Data

Summer Mentor: Alexander Diehl, PhD

Department of Biomedical Informatics Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Biomedical Engineering Hometown: Buffalo, NY Career Aspirations: Tissue engineering or prosthetic design Personal Motto: “Do well and do good.”

12:20PM Jennifer Sosa

MT2 receptor ligands modulate re-entrainment of circadian activity following abrupt phase advance.

Summer Mentor: Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD

Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Pharmacology and Toxicology Hometown: Buffalo, NY Academic/Career Aspirations: Obtain a PhD and do several post docs before seeking employment from the FDA

Personal Motto: “Life before Death. Strength before

Weakness. Journey before Destination.”

12:30PM Alexander Yunke

Generating an Intracranial Aneurysm Rupture Resemblance Score Using Morphometric

and Clinical Risk Factor Data

Summer Mentor: Jason M. Davies, MD, PhD

Department of Neurosurgery Undergraduate Institution: Canisius College Major: Biology Hometown: West Seneca, NY

Academic Aspirations: Graduate with my BS in Biology or Biochemistry and minor in Business; Earn my MD from

med school (possibly earn a PhD in something that may spark my interest down the road); Practice orthopedic or sports medicine and/or preventative medicine

Personal Motto: “I'm only this age for today, I might as well make the most of it.”

12:40PM Hannah Zimmerman

Adverse Events from Concurrent Prescription

Opioid Muscle Relaxant Use

Summer Mentor: Peter Elkin, MD, MACP, FACMI, FNYAM

Department of Biomedical Informatics

Undergraduate Institution: Duquesne University Major: Biochemistry Hometown: Red Lion, PA

Academic/Career Aspirations: Analytical Chemistry PhD

working in the Biotech Industry

Personal Motto: “Alis volat propriis - She flies with her own wings”

ASPET Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)

1:30PM Abigail Buckley

The Development of ANTI-LRP1 Antibody and Peptide Drug Conjugates for Glioblastoma Treatment

Summer Mentor: Dhaval K. Shah, PhD

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Undergraduate Institution: The University of Pittsburgh Major: Biological Sciences Hometown: Buffalo, NY Academic/ Career Aspirations: I plan on receiving an MD-PhD degree to incorporate my passions for translational research and neonatal and maternal health in a rewarding career. Personal Motto: “We may encounter many defeats but we must

not be defeated." -Maya Angelou

1:40PM Herika Fernandez

Neuropeptide S Receptor mediated responses in the Paraventricular Nucleus

Summer Mentor: Stewart Clark, PhD

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Undergraduate Institution: University at Buffalo Major: Pharmacology and Toxicology Hometown: Clark Mills, NY Academic Aspirations: Obtain a Master’s in Pharmacology and Toxicology Personal Motto: “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein

1:50PM Elizabeth Price

Protein Expression of a Novel, Orphan transporter: Monocarboxylate Transporter 6 (MCT6)

Summer Mentor: Marilyn E. Morris, PhD

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Undergraduate Institution: Binghamton University Major: Environmental Science Hometown: Colden, NY Academic Aspirations: I hope to obtain my MD following medical school. Personal Motto: “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh