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Student Research Day 2004  This year's Student Research Day boasted a record high number of 213 abstracts submitted and organized into 20 sessions, 11 poster format, 9 oral format, covering levels of study from undergraduate (sessions 1 and 12), clinical professional/masters (sessions 2, 3,13,14), PhD (sessions 4 - 8 and 15 - 18), resident/fellow (sessions 9 and 19) to postdoctoral (sessions 10,11,20).  Student Research Day winners. A total of 19 first place ($500) and 19 second place ($200) prizes were awarded, and the library judges awarded two $150 prizes for the best bioinformatics presentations.  There were also 30 laboratory equipment and supplies vendors represented. Sponsorship for the event was provided by the provost and vice president for academic affairs and the deans of the six colleges. The Graduate Alumni Association provided the Kinerd-Gadsden Award for the overall best senior Ph.D. poster presentation.  Ailsa Powell presents her research poster to a group of judges and interested students. Her presentation: “Dissecting a Critical Step Towards Antibiotic Resistance in Neisseria Gonorrhoeae.” The Graduate Student Association donated the use of their posters and also energy to set the boards up and take them down.  The SRD 2004 committee was comprised of Robert Draughn, College of Dental Medicine; Thomas Dix, College of Pharmacy; Teri-Lynn Herbert, Library; Jill Abell, Student Representative; Yvonne Michel, College of Nursing; Maralynne Mitcham and James Zoller, College of Health Professions; Mike Schmidt, Colleges of Medicine and Graduate Studies; Debbie Van Pelt-Gaskins, College of Graduate Studies; Leigh Manzi, MUSC Development Office;  Thomas Waldrep, Center for Academic Excellence;  Sammanda Ramamoorthy, Colleges of Medicine and Graduate Studies; Hiroko Hama, Colleges of Medicine and Graduate Studies; Eric James, colleges of Medicine and Graduate Studies, (chair). Judges listen to Corey White's  presentation  of his research project: “Functional Analysis of Human Beta Defensin-1.” Considerable assistance was provided by Lorie Robertson (Ophthalmology) and Van Pelt-Gaskins and Gilbert Bradham Jr. (Harper Student Center) who helped ensure the event ran smoothly, and Curtis Wise (Physiology and Neuroscience) for facilitating the Web site abstract submission process. For this year the poster presentations (138) were held in the Wellness Center Gym from 8:30 a.m. to noon and the oral sessions in the Basic Science Building from noon to 4 p.m. A reception followed.  The keynote address titled “Diversity-Generating Retroelements” was delivered by Jeffrey F. Miller, Ph.D., the M. Philip Davis Chair in Microbiology and Immunology, professor and chair, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California at Los Angeles.  Student Research Day 2004 Winners Session 1: 1st place—M. Raines; 2nd place—Jason Heileman Session 2: 1st place—VaShondra Richmond; 2nd place—Stephen A. Bagg Session 3: 1st place—V.R. Whitaker; 2nd place—Paul Doughty Session 4: 1st place—Brice Williams; 2nd place—Emily A. Monroe Session 5: 1st place—Anne M. Deschamps; 2nd place—Phillip Moschella Session 6: 1st place—Jie Fan; 2nd place—Michelle H. Hsia Session 7: 1st place—Zachary S. Bowman; 2nd place—Alex Whitley Session 8: 1st place—Yair Aderath; 2nd place—S. Matthew Jenny. The first place in this session is also the 2004 Kinerd-Gadsden Graduate Alumni Award winner Session 9 and 19: 1st place—Christopher Robinson; 2nd place—Shaun A. Nguyen Session 10: 1st place—Meihua Sui; 2nd place—Xia Wen Session 11: 1st place—T.E Kippin; 2nd place—Mark Slomiany Session 12: 1st place—Ching Zhu; 2nd place—Kyle Strickland Session 13: 1st place—J.A. Dodds; 2nd place—Jeremy Crisp Session 14: 1st place—Mark I. Kaldas; 2nd place—S.A. Brunelle Session 15: 1st place—Saeed Elojeimy; 2nd place—G.R. Kinsey Session 16: 1st place—Mary Bruorton; 2nd place—Zachary Evans Session 17: 1st place—Gregor Krings; 2nd place—Adrian Grimes Session 18: 1st place—Kristy M. Lindsey; 2nd place—Jennifer Cook Session 20: 1st place—Erin Eaton; 2nd place—Mark Pilgrim Bioinformatics: 1st place tie —Kristy B. Lidie and Romesh Stanislaus Speaker gets start at MUSC by Dick Peterson Public Relations Student Research Day keynote speaker Jeffrey F. Miller, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), launched his career in biomedical research here at MUSC. In 1976. At the age of 17. “It was my first experience in a research environment, an experience I would call formative,” Miller said. He recalled with obvious fondness his early experience on the MUSC campus. “My first interest was pre-med,” he said, “but that was because I didn’t know anything about research. Everybody knows what a doctor does, but you can’t know what a researcher does without experiencing it first hand.” The winner of a research contest, Miller spent his summer of research at MUSC funded by the National Explorer Society. The experience turned his attention toward biomedical research, a field he has found to be exciting. “MUSC has a tremendous program here,” Miller said, referring not just to the annual Student Research Day program, but to the suite of research programs run through the College of Graduate Studies that reach out to high school students, college students and minority students, and to MUSC’s health professional students to fire up their interest in pursuing a career in science research. The college supports by way of training grants, and departmental and faculty funds, summer research programs for high school, undergraduate and professional students. “These programs have provided rewarding research experiences for many of the participants, and in many of the cases, have led to the students’ choosing research careers,” said College of Graduate Studies Dean Perry Halushka,  M.D., Ph.D. “Many of their choices are similar to the path Dr. Miller took.”       Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. 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