More than 150 presenters, judges and spectators gathered for the Department of Medicine's annual Research Day Jan. 19 at the Harper Student Center. This event is an opportunity for junior researchers, clinicians and students to present their current research projects or clinical case studies.

A $1,000 professional development award was given to the best poster in each of the following six categories: graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral basic science, clinical fellows/residents, clinical junior faculty, and basic junior faculty.

Graduate student: Caitlyn Ellerbe, "Seamless Phase II/III Adaptive Dose Finding Design for Longitudinal Data in Safety/Efficacy Clinical Trials." Mentor: Valerie Durkalski, Ph.D.

Medical student: David LeBel, "The Role of Tissue Transglutaminase 2 in the Modulation of Polymorphonuclear Leukocyte Function." Mentor: Titus Reaves, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral basic science: Fei Gu, "Acquired Defects of Lupus Prone Mice-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Lead to Poor Effects of Autologous Transplantation in NZB/NZW F1 mice." Mentor: Gary Gilkeson, M.D.

Clinical fellow/resident: Nithin Karakala, "Urinary Biomarkers in Predicting Patient Outcome and Renal Recovery in Early Acute Kidney Injury." Mentor: John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D.

Clinical junior faculty: Cassandra Salgado, M.D., "Copper Surfaces (CuS) Significantly Lower Rate of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)." Mentor: Michael Schmidt, Ph.D.

Basic junior faculty: Brett Harris, Ph.D., "Remodeling of the Peripheral Cardiac Conduction System in Response to Pressure-Overload." Mentors: Roger Markwald, Ph.D., Donald Menick, Ph.D., and Terrence O'Brien, M.D.

A divisional participation award was given to the two divisions with the highest percentage of overall participation (First place — $7,500 and second place — $2,500). These earnings go toward the professional development of junior researchers. First place was the Division of Nephrology. Second place was the Division of Rheumatology.