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School of Graduate Studies

Annual Research Day 2024 Student Awards

Downstate's Annual Research Day consisted of 4 poster sessions, a platform session for graduate students and ending with a keynote address by NY Times columnist Carl Zimmer titled "Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive". With 140 presentations by trainees at all levels and across Downstate’s colleges, schools, and programs, the impressive quality and caliber of their research work was evident throughout the day. Downstate has much to be proud of in our trainees and we are excited to see what lies ahead for their careers.

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Top three presentations each from the poster and platform presentations were awarded monetary prizes, named after Dr. Joe Ma and Dr. Sophie Su, Graduate School alumni. We thank them for their generous gift to the Graduate School to support these awards. ​The recipients are listed below.  

Congratulations to the winners of Annual Research Day Presentations!

Dr. Joe Ma and Dr. Sophie Su Prizes

Poster Session

1st: Xiang Li, Total Sphingomyelin Synthase Activist Deficiency Results in Lipodystrophy​

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2nd: Scott McElroy, Investigating the cellular and cicuit mechanisms unerlying schizophrenia-related EEG biomarkers using a multiscale model of auditory thalamocortical circuits

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3rd: Benjamin Tessler, Minimally-invasive electric stimulation techniques to target hippocampal theta in urethane-anesthetized rat

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Platform Session

1st: Riley Morrone, 3R Tau Mediates Acute Neurodegeneration Following Closed Head Injury​

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2nd: Shreya Desikan, The Potential Role of Insufficient X Chromosome Inactivation in Impairing SMS2-Regulated Germinal Center B Cell Tolerance in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

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3rd: Andrew Patera, Engineering Molecular Probes for Diagnostic Applications

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Honorable Mentions

Qiana Jones, Phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) depletion in adults reduces sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) through reducing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the circulation​

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Anthony Fringuello, Concentric ion selective microelectrodes for accurate measurement of dynamic volume changes of the extracellular space during eplieptiform activity

Saliee Chavan, Effect of hydroxylchloroquine on B-cell tolerance in the germinal center​

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Pargol Mashati, Evaluating the therapeutic potential of a novel ADAM10 modulator in Colorectal Cancer

Thesis Defended! SGS Spring 2024

School of Health Professions

Applied Behavior Analysis Program

Peer-reviewed Publications:

 

National Conference Presentations:

  • Colasurdo, C. R., Reeve, K. F., Vladescu, J. C., Reeve, S. A., & Jennings, A. (2024, May). Establishing equivalence relations in the absence of active responding: A systematic review of the literature. Paper presented in the symposium, “Equivalence Class Formation Under Various Training and Testing Procedural Variables: Recent Research and a Review of the Literature,” Kenneth F. Reeve (Chair), at the 50th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Philadelphia, PA.

  • Aciu, J. L., Vladescu, J. C., Day-Watkins, J., & Schnell-Peskin, L. K. (2024, May). A potential life-saving skill: Teaching caregivers to perform infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Paper presented in the symposium, “Using Behavioral Science Towards Injury Prevention,” Lauren K. Schnell-Peskin (Chair), at the 50th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Philadelphia, PA. 

  • Day-Watkins, J., Eusebio-Ronco, J., Schnell-Peskin, L. K., Mendres-Smith, A. E., & Vladescu, J. C. (2024, May). Assessing the Use of a Shaping Procedure to Implement Tummy Time. Paper presented in the symposium, “Using Behavioral Science Towards Injury Prevention,” Lauren K. Schnell-Peskin (Chair), at the 50th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Philadelphia, PA. 

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Occupational Therapy Program

Peer-reviewed Publications:

  • Dr. Vikram Pagpatan published in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy as co-author for a manuscript entitled, "Empathy in Occupational Therapy: A Call for Reflection" 

National Conference Presentations:

  • Dr. Vikram Pagpatan presented as Keynote for the Nevada Occupational Therapy State Association 2024 Annual Conference on Digital Technologies and the Impact on E-Professionalism 

Book Chapters:

  • ​Dr. Vikram Pagpatan authored two chapters in the Solomon and O'Brien's Pediatric Skills for the Occupational Therapy Assistant, 6th Edition Textbook ​

Health Informatics

Conference Abstracts:

  • Rivera, B. D., Nurse, C., Shah, V., Roldan, C., Jumbo, A. E., Faysel, M., Levine, S. R., Kaufman, D. R., & Afable, A. (accepted). Assessing barriers and facilitators to digital health adoption for stroke care and rehabilitation among Black patients in Central Brooklyn. American Public Health Association Conference. October, 2024.

Books:

  • Kushniruk, A., Kaufman, D. R., Kanampallil, T., and Patel, V. L. (in press). Cognitive Informatics for Biomedicine: Human Computer Interaction in Healthcare. Springer​

SOHP Dean's Office

Peer-reviewed Publications:

  • Battle, T., Webb, K., Muhammad, A., Montoya, D., Moore, C., Cross K. E., Wang N., Quamar, A. H., Lewis, A. N., & Moore, C. L. (in press). Factors Impacting Employment in Transition-Age Individuals with Intellectual Disability. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling.

  • Seruya, F. M., Dondorf-Brooks, K., Trenz, R. C., & Lewis, A. N. (in press). A Descriptive Look at Women of Color with Children Affected by Stroke. The Journal of Rehabilitation.

  • Brooks, M., Ethridge, G., Chen, Y., Quamar, A. H., Lewis, A. N., & Dowden, A. (in press). Employment and Wages of African American Male Ex-Offenders with Disabilities. The Journal of Rehabilitation.
     

Notable Achievements:

  • Dean Allen Lewis was selected to receive the Bobbie Atkins Research Award for research productivity and mentoring of other researchers in multicultural research in the rehabilitation field.  The award is given by the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns, a division of the National Rehabilitation Association. This annual award is named for Dr. Bobbie Atkins who conducted the seminal research on the role of race and ethnicity in rehabilitation during the 1980s.​

School of Public Health

Environmental and Occupational Sciences

  • SUNY Downstate SPH master’s student Amber Cadore published a climate equity op-ed Greening Brooklyn: A Prescription for Health and Equity in the BkReader for Dr. Lori Hoepner’s public health course. Dr. Hoepner is an assistant professor of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.

  • Dr. Laura Geer, Chair and Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, was quoted in an article in The Hill on the climate crisis and the role of maternal mental health in climate resilience.

  • Dr. Lori Hoepner, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, was a 2023-24 New York Academy of Sciences Scientist in Residence at the High School for Sports Management in Brooklyn. Dr. Hoepner led 9th graders in a project to study air pollution in their school using handheld air monitors.

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

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Dr. Hoepner (left) Photo Credit: Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences

  • Dr. Marcus Lambert, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, has been awarded a $200,000 grant from New York Community Trust to develop an online platform to help community-based organizations (CBOs) with health programming, resources, and funding.

  • Dr. Janet Rosenbaum, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, coauthored a paper entitled “The Relationship Between Allergic Rhinitis, Asthma and Cardiovascular Disease in the National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS), 1999—2018” in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. Download the full article here.

  • Dr. Elizabeth Helzner, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, chaired the conference “Lifestyle Interventions for Optimal Outcomes in Diabetes and Prediabetes” on May 10, 2024. Recordings of the sessions can be viewed on Downstate TV here.

  • Epidemiology MD/MPH student Janelle Cocorpus was the first author on a paper, “Viral Load Suppression in People Living with HIV Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brooklyn, New York” in the journal AIDS and Behavior. Coauthors included recent CHSC DrPH graduate Susan Holman, and Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Elizabeth Helzner. Article can be accessed here:

  • Dr. Janet Rosenbaum, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, is the university representative to ICPSR, a repository of publicly available data. The resource is available to everyone at Downstate in all colleges and schools. ICPSR is available to give webinars to departments and schools to orient them to the data resources that are relevant to them, and help researchers identify appropriate secondary datasets. ICPSR hosts topic-oriented repositories about early childhood, HIV/substance use, demographics (i.e., life course), firearm safety among children and teens, health and medical care, resource center for minority data, patient-centered outcomes, and aging. If you do not already have an ICPSR account, you can create an account there to see our member-level resources. Here is their help page.

Community Health Services

  • Dr. Andrea Norcini Pala, an Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences, has recently had several studies published:

    • First author in the Journal of Personality on “ A Bayesian network analysis to examine the effects of HIV stigma processes on self‐concept and depressive symptoms among persons living with HIV “. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12930

    • Second author in AIDS and Behavior on “Intersectional Stigma, Fear of Negative Evaluation, Depression, and ART Adherence Among Women Living with HIV Who Engage in Substance Use: A Latent Class Serial Mediation Analysis.” https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-024-04282-6

    • Senior author in The Journal of Nutrition, “Complementing the United States Household Food Security Survey Module with Items Reflecting Social Unacceptability.” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.02.023

    • Senior author in the Frontiers in Psychiatry, “Evaluating the psychometric properties of three WHO instruments to assess knowledge about human rights, attitudes towards persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities, and practices related to substitute-decision making and coercion in mental health.” (In press). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1435608

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