A Publication of the University of Illinois at

Chicago Medical Scientist Training Program

Volume 20, Issue 1

WELCOME TO THE NEW M1 CLASS

September , 2018

Interviews Calendar:

Sunday, October 21 Student-hosted Welcome Din-ner for 1st Interview Group Monday, October 22, 9-5 1st Interview Group Sunday, November 18 Student-hosted Welcome Din-ner for 2nd Interview Group Monday, November 19, 9-5 2nd Interview Group Sunday, January 13 Student-hosted Welcome Din-ner for 3rd Interview Group Monday, January 14, 9-5 3rd Interview Group Sunday, January 27 Student-hosted Welcome Din-ner for 4th Interview Group Monday, January 28, 9-5 4th Interview Group Sunday, February 10 Student-hosted Welcome Din-ner for 5th Interview Group

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Meet the New Students 2-3

Farewell, Dr. Freitag 4

Faculty News 4

Alumni News 5

Wedding Bell & Baby Booties

6

2018 MSTP Retreat 7

8

Friday, November 9 The Annual COM

Research Day MSTP

Oral Presentations Wednesday, Nov 7

The UIC MSTP welcomed twelve M1students into the program family during summer 2018. After spending part or all of the summer pursuing their first UIC lab rotations, they were officially wel-comed into the entering COM M1 class at the White Coat Ceremony on August 10. Pictured left to right they are David Gong, Tanner Roach, Michelle Sheena, Mitchell Butler, Jordan Barone, Bani Medegan-Fagla, Margaret Schultz, Miles Barney, Jessica Lee, Cody Justice, Amanda

Snead, Deion Cheng.

This even dozen—half female and half male—are high academic achievers, and have all had extensive research training—both as undergraduates and in post-graduate work. In addition to their academic success, they all managed to excel in athletic, artistic and/or community service endeavors. In the arts, we find pottery (Barney), theatrical technician (Gong), graphic novels (Lee), traditional African dance (Medegan Fagla), experimenting with various graphic art styles (Sheena), and photography and web site design (Sneed). Athletic skills represented are gymnas-tics (Barney), figure skating and yoga (Barone), basketball and chess (Cheng), intramural soccer (Justice), club tennis (Roach) and lacrosse (Sheena). And every one of them has devoted count-less passionate hours to community service in areas such as food pantries, homeless services, medical missions, nursing homes, risk management and wellness in campus organizations, arts for hospitalized children, counseling for abused children and teaching/tutoring children.

(more on pages 2-3)

Calendar for Autumn Lunch Seminars—All at Noon 9/4 Kuei Y.uan Tseng (Anat-Cell Biol) 10/4 Shafi Kuchay (Biochem. Molecular. Genetics) 9/6 Jonathan Coloff (Physiology) 10/9 Salman Khetani (Bioengineering) 9/11 Kamal Sharma (Anat-Cell Biol) 10/17 Donna MacDuff (Micro-Immunology) 9/13 Deepak Shukla (Ophthalmology) 10/18 Ji Yeon Kim (Biochem. Molecular. Genetics) 9/18 Owen Tamplin (Pharmacology) 11/13 Beata Wolska (Physiology & Biophys) 9/20 Yulia Komarov (Pharmacology) 11/29 Henar Grajal (Physiology & Biophys) 9/25 Andrius Kazlayskas (Ophthalmology)

THE MEDICAL SCIENTIST

Page 2 Volume 20, Issue 1

Meet the Newest MSTP Students—The 2018 Entering Class Miles Barney Home town: Fresno , CA (born Santa Clara, CA) Degree: BA, Biology, 2016, University of Chicago Research Interests: Molecular Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Neurobiology 2018 Rotation: Lab of Amynah Pradhan, PhD, Dept. of Psychiatry Why MD/PhD? My aspiration is to take advancements in understanding the neuroscience of substance abuse and mental illness and translate them into therapies to better treat the popu-lations affected by these disorders. I believe that becoming a physician scientist will best help me achieve this.

Jordan Barone Home town: Arlington Heights, IL Degree: BA, Neuroscience, 2016, Vanderbilt University Research Interests: Neurodevelopment, Neurobiology, Neuroimaging Methods 2018 Rotation: Lab of Pauline Maki, PhD, Dept. of Psychiatry Why MD/PhD? Stopping the house from burning down will always be my primary goal as a physician, as patients’ immediate needs come first. However, with PhD training, I hope to study the chemistry of the paint, knowing that each step towards understanding the science of disease and treatment can only bring us closer to preventing the fire in the first place.

Mitchell Butler Home town: Towson, MD Degree: BS, Biophysics, 2018, University of Southern California Research Interests: Biomed. Imaging, Imagining Modalities, Medical Physics 2018 Rotation: Lab of Alex Leow, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry Why MD/PhD? I’m enthralled by the human body, particularly how it functions and the ways that diseases affect it. It doesn’t get much bigger-picture than that. In fact, my borderline un-healthy scientific appetite has long had a central purpose: I want to practice medicine. My life’s work will be with patients, but I dream of serving them both as a clinician and as a scientist. An MD/PhD degree would show me how to interweave these passions.

Deion Cheng Home town: Stoughton, MA (born Dallas, TX) Degree: BS, Biology, 2018. Northeastern University Research Interests: Immunology 2018 Rotation: Lab of Donna Macduff, PhD, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology Why MD/PhD? As a physician-scientist, I hope to study the pathobiology of diseases to es-tablish novel and more precise methods for their treatments and diagnoses. Perhaps most im-portant, the challenging and demanding career path will be driven not only by a passion for in-vestigation, but also by the reward of directly helping those in need.

David Gong Home town: Champaign, IL Degree: BS, Computer Science, 2016, Johns Hopkins University Research Interests: Computational Biology Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics 2018 Rotation: Lab of Alex Leow, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry Why MD/PhD? I believe that a physician’s experience is crucial for discerning the complex deficits in clinical practice, while the rigor of doctoral training endows a robust skillset for affecting novel change. Becoming a physician as well as a computer scientist will uniquely position me to tackle critical medical problems from an innovative perspective. Knowing the path will be challeng-ing, long, unforgiving, but invaluably rewarding, I am committed to becoming a physician-scientist.

Cody Justice Home town: Grove City, OH Degree: BS, Biochemistry, 2018, Ohio State University Research Interests: Cellular Physiology, Pharmacology, Molecular Biology 2018 Rotation: Lab of J. Michael O’Donnell, PhD, Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics Why MD/PhD? My goal is to serve as a liaison between technical and clinical communi-ties; synthesizing interdisciplinary research into a form that is readily utilized in the clinic, all for the fellow man. Becoming a physician scientist will give me the challenging, but gratifying, op-portunity to follow new treatments from conception to implementation; maintaining my desire to advocate for the health of others and provide personalized medical care.

The Medical Scientist Page 3

Jessica Lee Home town: San Jose, CA Degree: BS, Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics, 2015, UCLA Research Interests: Bioinformatics, Microbiology, Translational Science 2018 Rotation: Lab of Michael Federle, PhD, Dept. of Medicinal Chem. & Pharmacognosy Why MD/PhD? I am committed to pursuing the combined MD-PhD training to cultivate the necessary skills and knowledge for understanding biological systems and creating novel ap-proaches to patient care…. I am determined to gain the expertise to implement such approach-es through the healthcare system to service those who need them. By integrating my MD and PhD education as a physician scientist, I will strive to advance successful clinical translation of life-saving treatments and enhance quality of care for all patients.

Bani Medegan-Fagla Home town: Cotonou, Benin Degree: BS, Biotechnology, Chemistry, 2013l University of Nebraska Research Interests: Infectious Disease, Virology 2018 Rotation: Lab of Lijun Rong, PhD, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology Why MD/PhD? I have come to the firm realization that scientific research and healthcare are undividable. Medicine finds itself driven by scientific research, and scientific research finds a purpose in medicine. I have also come to value the ability to apply the scientific method to solve a physician’s riddle: disease. By pursuing an MD/PhD degree I hope to truly connect the expertise of a scientist with the clinical approach and to achieve the true purpose of a physician scientist: blending science for medicine and medicine for science.

Tanner Roach Home town: Chapel Hill, NC Degree: BA, Biology, 2017, Washington University -St. Louis Research Interests: Cancer Biology 2018 Rotation: Lab of Dept. of Alan Diamond, PhD, Dept. of Pathology Why MD/PhD? My curiosity is fed by scientific research discoveries, but while in the hospi-tal setting, I knew I wanted to interact with the people for whom the research is done. I want to take discoveries in the lab and apply them to real people for improved health outcomes. I am learning how the people treated in clinic direct a doctor’s scientific research in the lab, and how discoveries on the bench circle back to patients’ bedside to improve their health.

Margaret Schultz Home town: Horicon, WI Degree: BS, Biophysics, 2018, Loyola University Chicago Research Interests: Kinetic Modeling of peroxidase enzymes, enzymatic mechanisms, 2018 Rotation: Lab of Robert Sargis, MD,PhD, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Why MD/PhD? I am passionate about communicating with patients and I love working to-wards discovering new information. I recognize research is a vital part of medicine, and I desire to use my skills as a researcher to benefit the medical community and the patients I work with. I want to use my skills, knowledge and experiences to have a direct, positive impact on other’s health and quality of life. An MD/PhD allows me the opportunity to do both.

Michelle Sheena Home town: Houston, TX Degree: BS, Neuroscience, 2016, Tulane University Research Interests: Vison and perception: basic biological and cognitive processes 2018 Rotation: Lab of Mike Steiff, PhD, Department of Chemistry Why MD/PhD? As a physician-scientist, I want to increase our understanding of the neuroscien-tific phenomena underlying psychiatric medication and the therapeutic benefits of artistic expres-sion, and use this research to develop improved therapies for patients with neurological and psy-chiatric conditions. I hope to use my dual training to design clinically-informed studies, to improve patient mental health outcomes, and to guide evidence-based educational policy.

Amanda Snead Home town: Baltimore, MD Degree: BS, Neuroscience, 2013,Tulane University Research Interests: Neurodegeneration; affective, autoimmune and sleep disorders 2018 Rotation: Lab of Jeffrey Loeb, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology & Rehabilitation Why MD/PhD? . I am applying for the dual MD/PhD degree because being a physician scientist requires continuous learning and provides an immense benefit to speeding discovery of new treatments, promoting innovation, and helping a large population of patients.

Nancy Freitag, PhD, leaves MSTP to Become UIC Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

In the previous issue of “The Medical Scientist,” April 2018, we took great pride and pleasure in announcing the appointment of “our devoted MSTP Associate Director” Nancy Freitag, PhD, as a UIC University Scholar. We said that “we welcome the occasion to congratulate and praise her at every opportunity. Then, on June 13 came the news that she had been appointed Associate Prov-ost for Faculty Affairs of the University, effective July 13.. The announcement stated: “Dr. Freitag is currently a tenured Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, and Assistant Dean of M.D./Ph.D. Education in the College of Medicine. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from UCLA and served on the faculty at Wayne State University and the University of Washington before joining UIC in 2006.

Dr. Freitag’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria cause disease as well as the host immune responses that limit infection. The NIH has continuously funded her laboratory since 1997 and in 2016 she was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Freitag’s teaching has been recognized by several awards, including three Golden Apples. She has published over seventy peer-reviewed publica-tions and holds two patents. In 2017 she became a University Scholar. Dr. Freitag has served on numerous institutional committees, including three terms on the University Promotion and Ten-ure Committee. This past year she graduated as a Fellow in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program, a national year-long fellowship program for women that enhances leadership skills including training in program development, conflict resolution, negotiation, and decision making skills.” To express our love and gratitude for her six and a half years of dedicated service to the education, welfare and happi-ness of the MSTP students, we threw her a “thank you” party on the evening of August 6. After everyone was well sated with a delicious buffet dinner, Dr. Tobacman and Dr. Rosenblatt gave warm tributes to Nancy and then Julie presented her with a gift from the program: an engraved clock for her new desk in University Hall. Lots of hugs to her conveyed the thanks of the students, faculty and staff for her devoted service to the MSTP and best wishes as Vice Provost. Following the event she wrote the following thank you note to the entire program community: Dear All, I have been composing in my head for many days a heartfelt thank you for the wonderful MSTP sendoff and dinner, and finally I realized I just have to try and write it out and send it off! Thank you all so much for the privilege of being involved with the MSTP. It has been my sincere pleasure to work and not-work with all of you, and I will miss my MSTP family! I always felt proud to be associated with a program that is dedicated to the success of its students and takes such pride in them, and it has been a joy to work with the MSTP leadership, Admissions committee, and students. The seven, eight, nine-year time frame may seem like a stretch, but what it meant for me was a chance to enjoy your company for as long as I could! Thank you so much for the warm sendoff, the beautiful card, the overwhelmingly kind poster, and the gor-geous clock which I opened only after most had left. Please know that my door is ALWAYS open, both in COMRB and on the 27

thfloor of University Hall, and I would love to see each and every one of you. You will always have my best

wishes and respect, and I am an ETERNAL MSTP fan!

MSTP Faculty News David Carley, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the UIC College of Nursing, was quoted in an Associated Press article and featured in the accompanying video about alternative treatments for sleep apnea. Dr. Carley is investigating the first-ever potential drug to treat the sleep disorder, dronabinol. Currently used as a drug to treat nausea in chemotherapy patients, dronabinol contains synthetic THC - a chemical found in marijuana plants. Dr. Carley was the thesis advisor of MSTP alumnus Jonathan Waxman, MD, PhD (2014) who studied sleep apnea for his PhD thesis. Patricia Finn, MD, the Earl M. Bane Professor of Medicine and Head of the Dept. of Medicine, and her husband David Perkins, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Surgery and Bioengineering, are the co-principal investigators on a new $2,.7 million, four-year NIH grant to investigate possible links between the lung microbiome and sarcoidosis (an inflammatory disease that attacks multiple organs, par-ticularly the lungs and lymph nodes, and disproportionately affects African Americans). They are the co-thesis advisors of Cody Schott (G4) and Dr. Finn is also the thesis advisor of Benjamin Turturice (M4). Another investigator on the grant is Yang Dai, PhD, Associate Professor in the Dept. of Bioengineering. She was the thesis advisor of MSTP alumnus Joel Fontanerosa, MD, PhD (2013). Brian Layden, (MD '05 UIC), professor and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, was one of three UIC research-ers awarded funding by Chicago Biomedical Consortium. He was also the keynote speaker at the MSTP 2018 Retreat in June (see page 8).

Page 4 Volume 20, Issue 2

The Medical Scientist Page 5

Recent Student Publications

Alexander Agelidis (G5)

Jaishankar D, Yakoub AM, Yadavalli T, Agelidis A, Thakkar N, Hadigal S, Ames J, Shukla D. An off-target effect of BX795 blocks

herpes simplex virus type 1 infection of the eye. Science Translational Medicine 10(428), eaan5681 (2018).

Yadavalli T, Agelidis A, Jaishankar D, Mangano K, Thakkar N, Penmetcha K, Shukla D. Targeting herpes simplex virus-1 gD by

a DNA aptamer can be an effective new strategy to curb viral infection. Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids 9, 365-378 (2017).

Tiffani Berkel (M3)

Berkel TDM & Pandey SC (2017) Emerging Role of Epigenetic Mechanisms in Alcohol Addiction. Alcoholism Clinical and Exper-

imental Research 41(4): 666-680.

Russell Dulman (G2)

Augier E, Barbier E, Dulman RS, Licheri V, Augier G, Domi E, Barchiesi R, Farris S, Natt D, Mayfield RD, Adermark, L, Heilig M

(2018). A Molecular Mechanism for Choosing Alcohol over an Alternative Reward. Science 360(6395): 1321-1326.

Artemis Gogos (G3)

Gogos, A., J imenez, J .C., Chang, J .C., Wilkening, R.V., Federle, M.J. “A quorum sensing-regulated protein binds cell-wall com-

ponents and enhances lysozyme resistance in Streptococcus pyogenes. J. Bacteriol. 2018, doi: 10.1128/JB.00701-17.

Laura Rogers Hardy (G4)

Hardy, L.R., Salvi, A., Burdette, J.B. UnPAXing the Divergent Roles of PAX2 and PAX8 in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer.

Cancers 2018 August 8:10(8). PMID: 30096791.

Russo, A., Czarnecki, A.A., Dean, M., Modi, D.A., Lantvit, D.D., Hardy, L.R., Baligod, S., Davis, D.A., Wei, J., Burdette, J.E. PTEN

loss in the fallopian tube induces hyperplasia and ovarian tumor formation. Oncogene 2018 January 25:1. PMID: 29367766.

Jane Ivakhnitskaia (G3)

Ivakhnitskaia, E., Lin, R.W., Hamada, K., Chang, C. (2018). Timing of neuronal plasticity in development and aging. Wiley Inter-

discip. Rev. Dev. Biol. 7(2). Doi:10.1002/wdev.305. PMID: 29139210.

Hirata, H., Dallacasagrande, V., Mizerska, K., Ivakhnitskaia, E., Rosenblatt, M.I. (2018). Ambient Air Currents Activate Corneal

Nerves During Ocular Dessication in Rats: Simultaneous Recordings of Neural Activity and Corneal Temperature. Invest. Oph-

thalmol. Vis. Sci. 59(10): 4031-4043. Doi:10.1167/iovs18-24604. PMID: 30098191.

Evan Kyzar (M3)

Zhang H, Kyzar E, Bohnsack J, Kokare D, Teppen T, Pandey S. Adolescent alcohol exposure epigenetically regulates CREB

signaling in the adult amygdala. Sci Rep; 2018: 8(1):10376.

Pandey S, Kyzar E, Zhang H. Epigenetic basis of the dark side of alcohol addiction. Neuropharmacology; 2017: 122:74-84.

Kyzar E, Zhang H, Sakharkar A, Pandey S. Adolescent alcohol exposure alters lysine demethylase 1 (LSD1) expression and

histone methylation in the amygdala during adulthood. Addict Biol; 2017: 22(5):1191-1204

Meshalkina D, Kizlyuk M, Kisel E, Collier A, Echevarria D, Abreu M, Barcellos L, Song C, Warnick J, Kyzar E, Kalueff A.

Zebrafish models of autism spectrum disorder. Exp Neurol; 2017: 299207-216.

Matthew MacDougall (G5)

Enhanced bacterial immunity and mammalian genome editing via RNApolymerase-mediated dislodging of Cas9 from double

strand DNA breaks. Ryan Clarke, Robert Heler, Matthew S MacDougall, Nan Cher Yeo, Alejandro Chavez, Maureen Regan,

Leslyn Hanakahi, George M. Church, Luciano A. Marraffini, Bradley J. Merrill. Molecular Cell, 2018.

Christopher Manzella (G4)

Manzella, C., Singhal, M., Alrefai, W. A., Saksena, S., Dudeja, P. K., & Gill, R. K. (2018). Serotonin is an endogenous regulator

of intestinal CYP1A1 via AhR. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 6103. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24213-5. Zhang, Y.-G., Singhal, M., Lin, Z., Manzella, C., Kumar, A., Alrefai, W. A., et al. (2018). Infection with enteric pathogens Salmo-

nella typhimurium and Citrobacter rodentium modulate TGF-beta/Smad Signaling Pathways in the Intestine. Gut Microbes,

146, 0–00. http://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2018.1429878.

Alejandra Marinelarena (M3)

Kumar, P., Marinelarena, A., Raghunathan, D., Ragothaman, V.K., Saini, S., Bhattacharya, P., Fan, J., Epstein, A.L., Maker,

A.V., and Prabhakar, B.S. Critical role of OX40 signaling in the TCR-independent phase of human and murine thymic Treg gen-

eration. Cell Mol Immunol. 2018.

Alharshawi K, Marinelarena A, Kumar P, El-Sayed O, Bhattacharya P, Sun Z, Epstein AL, Maker AV, Prabhakar BS. PKC-theta is

dispensable for OX40L-induced TCR-independent Treg proliferation but contributes by enabling IL-2 production from effector T

-cells. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):6594. continued on page 6

Michael Marshall (G4)

Marshall, M. S., Issa, Y., Jakubauskas, B., Stoskute, M., Elackattu, V., Marshall, J. N., . . . Bongarzone, E. R. (2018). Long-Term

Improvement of Neurological Signs and Metabolic Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Krabbe's Disease after Global Gene Ther-

apy. Mol Ther, 26(3), 874-889. doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.009

Marshall, M. S., Jakubauskas, B., Bogue, W., Stoskute, M., Hauck, Z., Rue, E., . . . Bongarzone, E. R. (2018). Analysis of age-

related changes in psychosine metabolism in the human brain. PLoS One, 13(2), e0193438. doi:10.1371/

journal.pone.0193438

Marshall, M. S., Issa, Y., Jakubauskas, B., Stoskute, M., Elackattu, V., Marshall, J. N., . . . Bongarzone, E. R. (2018). Long-Term

Improvement of Neurological Signs and Metabolic Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Krabbe's Disease after Global Gene Ther-

apy. Mol Ther, 26(3), 874-889. doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.009

Marshall, M. S., Jakubauskas, B., Bogue, W., Stoskute, M., Hauck, Z., Rue, E., . . . Bongarzone, E. R. (2018). Analysis of age-

related changes in psychosine metabolism in the human brain. PLoS One, 13(2), e0193438. doi:10.1371/

journal.pone.0193438

Marshall, M. S., & Bongarzone, E. R. (2016). Beyond Krabbe's disease: The potential contribution of galactosylceramidase

deficiency to neuronal vulnerability in late-onset synucleinopathies. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 94(11), 1328-1332.

doi:10.1002/jnr.23751

Smith, B. R.*, Santos, M. B.*, Marshall, M. S.*, Cantuti-Castelvetri, L., Lopez-Rosas, A., Li, G., . . . Bongarzone, E. R. (2014).

Neuronal inclusions of alpha-synuclein contribute to the pathogenesis of Krabbe disease. J Pathol, 232(5), 509-521.

doi:10.1002/path.4328

Karumuthil-Melethil, S., Marshall, M. S., Heindel, C., Jakubauskas, B., Bongarzone, E. R., & Gray, S. J. (2016). Intrathecal ad-

ministration of AAV/GALC vectors in 10-11-day-old twitcher mice improves survival and is enhanced by bone marrow trans-

plant. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 94(11), 1138-1151. doi:10.1002/jnr.23882

Moyano, A. L., Steplowski, J., Wang, H., Son, K. N., Rapolti, D. I., Marshall, J., Elackattu, V., Marshall, M.S., . . . Bongarzone, E.

R. (2018). microRNA-219 Reduces Viral Load and Pathologic Changes in Theiler's Virus-Induced Demyelinating Disease. Mol

Ther, 26(3), 730-743. doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.008

Amanda Mennie (M3)

Mennie AK, Hoyle A, Moser BA, Los RS, Tanaka K, Nakamura TM. Anti-TEL patch motif in Tpz1 prevents telomerase activation

and protects telomere against fusions by modulating Stn1-Ten complex in fission yeast. Communications Biology. 2018.

Alan Perez Rathke (G5)

Perez-Rathke, A., Fahie, M.A., Chisholm, C., Liang, J. and Chen, M., 2018. Mechanism of OmpG pH-dependent gating from

loop ensemble and single channel studies. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(3), pp.1105-1115.

Wang, B., Perez-Rathke, A., Li, R. and Liang, J., 2018, March. A general method for predicting amino acid residues experienc-

ing hydrogen exchange. In ... IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics. IEEE-EMBS Interna-

tional Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (Vol. 2018, p. 341). NIH Public Access.

Perez-Rathke, A., Li, H. and Lussier, Y.A., 2013. Interpreting personal transcriptomes: personalized mechanism-scale profiling

of RNA-seq data. In Biocomputing 2013 (pp. 159-170).

Mladen Rasic (G4)

Zulueta J, Piscitello A, Rasic M, et al. Predicting Mood Disturbance Severity with Mobile Phone Keystroke Metadata: A BiAffect

Digital Phenotyping Study. Eysenbach G, ed. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2018;20(7):e241. doi:10.2196/

jmir.9775.

Cory Reiter (G3)

Moyano AL, Steplowski J, Wang H, Song KN, Rapolti DI, Marshall J, Elackattu V, Marshall MS, Hebert AK, Reiter CR, Ulloa V,

Pituch KC, Givogri MI, Lu QR, Lipton HL, Bongarzone ER. microRNA-219 reduces viral load and pathologic changes in Theiler’s

virus-induced demyelinating disease. Molecular Therapy. doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.008.

D'Auria L, Reiter C, Ward E, Moyano AL, Marshall MS, Nguyen D, Scesa G, Hauck Z, van Breemen R, Givogri MI, Bongarzone

ER. (2017) Psychosine enhances the shedding of membrane microvesicles: Implications in demyelination in Krabbe's dis-

ease. PLoS ONE 12(5): e0178103.

Adam Schafer (G4)

Schafer, A., Cheng, H., Xiong, R., Soloveva, V., Retterer, C., Mo, F., . . . Rong, L. (2018). Repurposing potential of 1st genera-

tion H1-specific antihistamines as anti-filovirus therapeutics. Antiviral Research, 157, 47-56. doi:S0166-3542(18)30301-2

[pii]

Cui, Q., Du, R., Anantpadma, M., Schafer, A., Hou, L., Tian, J., . . . Rong, L. (2018). Identification of ellagic acid from plant rho-

diola rosea L. as an anti-ebola virus entry inhibitor. Viruses, 10(4), 10.3390/v10040152. doi:E152 [pii]

Han, J., Perez, J., Schafer, A., Cheng, H., Peet, N., Rong, L., & Manicassamy, B. (2017). Influenza virus: Small molecule thera-

peutics and mechanisms of antiviral resistance. Current Medicinal Chemistry, continued on 10

The Medical Scientist Page 7

Alumni News In Memoriam: Harold Harrison (MD, PHD 1979) It is with great sadness that we report the sudden passing of one of the program’s pioneer students, Harold Harrison. At the top of his illustrious physician scientist career as the Director of Clinical Pathology, Geisinger Health System and the Director of Pathology Residency at Geisinger Commonwealth SOM, Dr. Harrison died June 6 in his car while driving to work at Geisinger. A memorial service was held June 27 in Lewisburg, PA where he lived with his wife of 24 years, Brenda Naccari. Among his many mourners are their three children: Amelia, a graduate student at The Uni-

versity of Delaware, Maggie, a senior at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and Henry, a sophomore at Tulane University.

Harry, as he was affectionately known, grew up in West Rogers Park in Chicago, where his life-long best friend since grammar school was Chuck Bernstein, the first cousin of Roberta Bernstein’s husband Chuck. Roberta had the personal pleasure of seeing Harry at the wed-ding of friend cousin Chuck’s son in November 2017. With his BS in Chemistry from UIUC in 1972, he entered the UIC College of medicine to study medicine and pursue a PhD in Biochemistry in what was then the pioneering fore-runner of what later became a formalized MD-PhD Program. In 2005, he wrote to the pro-gram as follows: “I believe I was in the first formal MD-PhD group that started in the Fall of 1973. There were four others. My thesis advisor was Paul W. Morris, PhD. The received a letter of commendation from the Dept. for achieving the highest score ever on their written preliminary exam and later won first place in the Medical Student Research Forum for my studies. Although I had finished my research studies by the summer of 1979, I didn’t get my thesis written and defended until after my internship [at UI Hospital]—the final night of which was spent wheeling patients through the tunnels from the old R&E hospital [the cur-rent Clinical Sciences Building, 820 S. Wood] wards to the new hospital on Taylor St. Thus my PhD diploma was issued in 1981. “After my internship year, I did a residency in Clinical Pathology from 1980 to 1983 at Northwestern. I then did two years of post-doctoral study with Drs. Norman and Leigh An-derson on the Human Protein Index in the Molecular Anatomy program at Argonne National Laboratory. Today this field is called proteomics. In 1985 I moved over to the University of Chicago as a faculty member in Pathology. I directed the Special Chemistry and Molecular Pathology laboratory of the hospital and my research studies were on serum proteins and their genetics. In 1992, I was recruited to Genetrix, Inc. and the University of Arizona Medi-cal School in Phoenix in a joint commercial/private genetics practice and academic setting) which is typical for Phoenix clinical faculty).” The rest of his career can be summarized as follows: 1992-1996 – Genetrix, and U. Arizona Medical School 1996-1997 – Director of Clinical Pathology, Genzyme Genetics,Scottsdale, AZ; 1997-2000 - Med. Director, NY/NJ and Corp. Med. Dir, Genetic Services, Quest Diagnos-tics, Teterboro, NJ 1997-2001 - Consulting Pathologies, HEMEX Labs, Phoenix, AZ; Medical Director & Part-ner, 2001-2007 2007-2018 - Geisinger The memorial statement issued by Geisinger stated; “An intellectual powerhouse and a consummate clinical laboratory scientist, he ensured excellence in clinical lab services for Geisinger and contributed to the field of laboratory quality assurance. He had a very posi-tive and cheerful personality and a good sense of humor and will be greatly missed by his

colleagues.” With stellar students like Harry forging the proper path for MD-PhD studies at the UIC Col-lege of Medicine, we have continued to attract top ranked dual degree students. May Harry rest in peace and may his memory continue to be a beacon for current and future MD-PhD students. (Alumni News continues on page 8) Note to all alumni: Please keep the updates on your news coming. If you’re going to be in Chicago, please stop by for an informal visit or to give w a formal presentation

In the Alumni Mailbag From: Lila Glotfelty (2014) [mailto:lilagollogly@gmail.com]

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2018

Subject: Baby girl is here

Aria Alexandra

Glotfelty, 7 lbs

10.8 oz. We are

doing well so far!

From: Michael Rubin (1997) [mailto:Michael.Rubin@hsc.utah.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018

To: Mann, Julianna L.

Subject: Re: UIC College of Medicine

MSTP- Spring 2018 Newsletter

Great newsletter, thanks for keeping it going . Michael Rubin, MD, PhD, MS, FIDSA, FACP Associate Chair for Faculty Affairs & Development; Director, Vice Presi-dent’s Clinical & Translational Scholars Program; Professor of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, Divi-sion of Epidemiology, University of Utah School of Medicine; Chief, Epide-miology Section; Associate Director, Salt Lake IDEAS 2.0 Center, VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, UT 84148

From: Uzma Samadani (1999) [mailto:usamadan@umn.edu]

Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018

To: Cohen, Edward, Bernstein, Roberta,

Tobacman, Larry, Mann, Julianna

Thanks so much for your super kind emails! Sometimes when one is deep in the trenches it is nice to hear that hard work is getting recognized. Congratulations on the progress with the MSTP program. I remember that when I was there the infrastructure was "lean" and it is wonderful to hear how it has grown! I'm not yet sure when next I will be back in Chica-go. But I look forward to staying in touch and visiting again. Best, Uzma Assoc. Prof. , Dept. of Neurosurgery, U. Minnesota Medical School; Neurosurgeon, Minneapolis VA Medical Center; Rockswold Kaplan Endowed Chair for Traumatic Brain Injury Research-Hennepin County Medical Center.

Ed. Note: Dr. Uzma was the MSTP graduation speaker in 2014.

Page 8 Volume 20, Issue 2

Mir (Isaam) Isaamullah, M3, and Crystal Rayon on their marriage May 5 at Reza’s Restaurant in Oakbrook, IL. Crystal is Family Medicine Intern at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital.

Wedding Bells & Baby Booties

Congratulations to:

Laura Rogers Hardy, G4, and husband Adam Hardy on the birth of their first child: “Owen Andrew Hardy was born July 14th

weighing 7lb 5oz. He's shot up in size and now is in the 90th per-centile for both height and weight! Which means he's eating a lot and keeping me up with lots of feedings! But I'm happy he's healthy and getting cuter every day. He's got the social smile down, which cheers me up even when I'm super tired.“

Alumni News, cont. Long-time MSTP pals, (l. to r.) Donny Hoang (2006) and David Ramsey (2008), both ophthal-mologist-scientists, enjoyed having a social re-union while attending a professional conference, the 2018 meeting of The Association for Re-search in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), April 29-May 3 in Honolulu.

Dr. Hoang is Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Clinical Scientist in the Vitreo-Retinal Dept. of the Singapore Na-tional Eye Centre with a clinical and research focus on extreme short-sightedness. Dr. Ramsey, a vitreoretinal surgeon and retinal electrophysiologist, is Director of Ophthalmic Research at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, a teaching affiliate of Tufts University SOM, where he is also Assistant Professor of Ophthal-mology. He is a member of the New England Ophthalmologist Society.

Recent Student Defenses – CONGRATULATIONS: Amanda Mennie — Friday, July 27, 2018, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics; Faculty Advisor: Nakamura, PhD; Thesis Title: “Telomere Protection and Length Regulation in Schizosaccharomyces Pombe”

The Medical Scientist Page 9

2018 MSTP Retreat Thursday, June 28, 2018 Cheney Mansion, Oak Park

Meeting at a new venue this year, the Cheney Man-sion in Oak Park, the 2018 Retreat opening with breakfast and Dr. Freitag’s always hilarious introduc-tion o the new students. It was followed by an ice-breaker led by Denise Yates, and then Dr. Tobac-man’s annual State of the Program message. Using many of the spacious, elegant rooms in the house, the group moved into the library for the poster ses-sion. Presenters were: Alex Agelidis (G5), Catherine Blaha (G4), Russell Dulman (G2),. Joseph Geraghty (G3), Laura Hardy (G4), Jane Ivakhnitskaia (G3), Allison Kirchner (G3), Trevor Leonardo (G2), Cutler Lewandowski (G2), Amanda Mennie (M3), Alan Perez-Rathke (G5), Adam Schafer (G4), Cody Schott (G4), Alexan-

der Terry (G3), Alexander Ticho (G4), Benjamin Turturice (G4), and Morgan Zenner (G2).

Back in the living room, rising M4 students Reid Wilkening and Michael Marshall con-ducted a senior panel to give advice and answer questions based on their experi-ences in the program.

During lunch, Brian Lay-den, MD, PhD, Associ-ate Professor Medicine and Chief of the Depart-ment of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabo-lism, gave the keynote address on “Metabolic Sensing of the Gut Mi-crobiota through Nutrient Receptors”.

After lunch, everyone went outside into the beautiful gardens to get some exercise and pose for various group photos.

Back inside, SAC conduct-ed its annual all-student meeting. Oral presenta-tions on their research were given by Artemis Gogos (G3), Michael Met-rick (G2), and Alexandria Young (G3). The final ses-sion was the annual Co-hort meetings, and then a social hour took place at Bar Louie on Lake Street in Oak Park. With the weather cooperat-ing, great erudition, and lots of good humor, it was a fun-filled and educational day off campus

University of Illinois

College of Medicine

COM Dean’s Office, MC 784

1853 West Polk Street

Chicago, IL 60612

The Medica l Sc ient is t

Phone: 312-996-7473

Fax: 312-413-8221

MSTP Administration

Larry S. Tobacman, MD Sr. Associate Dean for Research MSTP Director Mark Rosenblatt, MD, PhD Head, Dept. of Ophthalmology & Visual Science MSTP Associate Director Julie Mann, MA, Director, Program Administration Samantha Bynum MSTP Coordinator Roberta Bernstein, Medical Scientist Editor Coordinator of Alumni Affairs

We’re on the web!

www.uic.edu/com/mdphd

Recent Student Publications, continued from page 6

Rachael Smith (G2)

Abdelkarim, H., Marshall, M.S., Scesa, G., Smith, R.A., Rue, E., Marshall, J., Elackattu, V.,

Stoskute, M., Issa, Y., Santos, M., Nguyen, D., Hauck, Z., Breemen, R., Celej, S., Gapo-

nenko, V., Bongarzone, E.R. α-Synuclein interacts directly but reversibly with psychosine:

implications for α-synucleinopathies. Scientific Reports. 8. 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41598

-018-30808-9

Peters, A.T., Smith R.A., Kassel, M.T., Maki, P., Van Meter, A., Briceño, E.M., Ryan, K.A.,

Hagan, M., Weldon, A.L., Weisenbach, S.L., Starkman, M.N., Langenecker, S.A. A pilot

investigation of differential neuroendocrine associations with fronto-limbic activation

during semantically-cued list learning in mood disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders.

239. 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.07.006.

Cornelius, J., Perreau, G., Bishop, V., Krause, J., Smith, R., Hahn, T., Meddle, S. Social

information changes stress hormone receptor expression in the songbird brain. Hor-

mones and Behavior. 97. 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.10.002.

Alan Tseng (G5)

Tseng A, Kim K, Li J, Cho J. Myeloperoxidase Negatively Regulates Neutrophil–

Endothelial Cell Interactions by Impairing αMβ2 Integrin Function in Sterile Inflamma-

tion. Frontiers in Medicine. 2018;5:134. doi:10.3389/fmed.2018.00134.

Kim K, Tseng A, Barazia A, Italiano JE, Cho J. DREAM plays an important role in platelet

activation and thrombogenesis. Blood. 2017;129(2):209-225. doi:10.1182/blood-2016

-07-724419.

Benjamin Turturice (G4)

Turturice BA, Ranjan R, Nguyen B, Hughes LM, Andropolis KE, Gold DR, Litonjua AA,

Oken E, Perkins DL, Finn PW (2017) Perinatal Bacterial Exposure Contributes to IL-13

Aeroallergen Response. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology 57

(4), 419-427

Ozturk AB, Turturice BA, Perkins DL, Finn PW (2017) The Potential for Emerging Microbi-

ome-Mediated Therapeutics in Asthma. Current allergy and asthma reports 17 (9), 62

Turturice BA, Mcgee HS, Oliver B, Baraket M, Nguyen BT, Ascoli C, Ranjan R, Rani A, Per-

kins DL, Finn PW (2017) Atopic Asthmatic Immune Phenotypes Associated with Airway

Microbiota and Airway Obstruction. PloS one 12 (10), e0184566

Schott C, Weigt SS, Turturice BA, Metwally A, Belperio J, Finn PW, Perkins DL. Bronchiolit-

is obliterans syndrome susceptibility and the pulmonary microbiome. J Heart Lung Trans-

plant. 2018. Epub 2018/06/23. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2018.04.007. PubMed PMID:

29929823

Reid Wilkening (M4)

Wilkening, R.V.*, Capodagli, G.C.*, Khataokar, A.*, Tylor, K.M., Neiditch, M.B., Federle,

M.J. “Activating mutations in quorum-sensing regulator Rgg2 and its conformational flex-

ibility in the absence of an intermolecular disulfide bond.” J. Biol. Chem. 2017, 292

20544-20557.

Gogos, A., Jimenez, J.C., Chang, J.C., Wilkening, R.V., Federle, M.J. “A quorum sensing-

regulated protein binds cell-wall components and enhances lysozyme resistance in Strep-

tococcus pyogenes. J. Bacteriol. 2018, doi: 10.1128/JB.00701-17.

Alexandria Young G4)

Woodard JL, Huntsman AC, Patel PA, Chai HB, Kanagasabai R, Karmahapatra S, Young

AN, Ren Y, Cole MS, Herrera D, Yalowich JC, Kinghorn AD, Burdette JE, Fuchs JR. Synthe-

sis and antiproliferative activity of derivatives of the phyllanthusmin class of arylnaph-

thalene lignin lactones. Bioorg Med Chem 2018;26(9):2354-2364.

Page 8 Volume 20, Issue 1

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