Skip to content

2015 NIH Summer Poster Day Participants

2015 NIH Poster Day

NEI Poster Day Participants. Kneeling: Dr. Cesar Perez-Gonzalez, Summer Program Coordinator. First Row (left to right): Lauren Killingsworth, Alexandra Pietraszkiewicz, Ali Allahdina, Juliet Hartford, Laken Shumate, Margaret Starostik, Christina Stevens, Lena Bakalian, Shaimar Gonzalez Morales, Sarah Chwiki, Angela Zhou, Rebecca Xi, Sonia Chen, Sohee Shim, Danielle Horridge, Kirubel Belay, Amanda Ray, Jenny Yoon. Second Row: Jason Alvarez, Mohammad Yazdanie, Eric Kudiwu, Anesu Nyawata, Howard Nicholson, Kaifa Boyce, Brianna Stroud-Williams, Melissa Lester, Laura Keehan, Dahlia Wilson, Caitlyn McCafferty, Jose Salazar, Iain Forrest, Jackson Gao, Jerry Mi, David Noursi, Siqi Chen.

The NIH Summer Poster Day provides an opportunity for summer interns to share their accomplishments with the NIH community as well as family and friends. The following thirty-six students from the NEI presented their research:
 

Allyshah Allahdina 
Anatomic and Functional Measures of Plaquenil-induced Retinal Toxicity 
Howard University College of Medicine (District of Columbia)
Dr. Catherine Cukras, Dr. Wai Wong, Dr. Emily Chew, Preceptors

Lena Bakalian


Lena Bakalian 
The Effects of Pigment Epithelium Growth Factor in the Retinas of RD10 Mice
Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart (Maryland)
Dr. Federica Polato, Dr. Patricia Becerra, Preceptors

Kirubel Belay 
DIVRO
Ocular Commensal Bacteria and its Regulation of Immunity at the Ocular Surface 
University of Texas at Austin (Texas)
Dr. Anthony St. Leger, Ms. Phyllis Silver, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Gabriella Belmarez 
DIVRO
A Neural Code for Vision Decays in Retinal Degenerative Models: Quantifiable Spike Train Coherence in Rd1 and Rd10 Mice Retinal Ganglion Cells 
Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts)
Dr. Steven Stasheff, Preceptor

Kaifa Boyce 
DIVRO
Proinflammatory Cytokines Induce Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells 
University of Maryland, College Park (Maryland)
Dr. Michael Redmond, Dr. Krishnan Kutty, Dr. William Samuel, Preceptors

Xiaoyu Cai 
Expression Pattern of KCNJ13 Knock-in Reporter in the Mouse Brain and Eye 
Duke University (North Carolina)
Dr. Lijin Dong, Preceptor

Siqi Chen


Siqi Chen 
Interferon Gamma is Critical for Regulating IL-18/IL-18BP Axis in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells 
Johns Hopkins University (Maryland)
Dr. Guangpu Shi, Dr. Igal Gery, Preceptors

Sonia Chen 
OCT Imaging of Mutant Mice 
Walt Whitman High School (Maryland)
Dr. Haohua Qian, Preceptor

Sarah Chwiki 
The Effect of Antiretroviral Therapy on Vessels 
University of Virginia (Virginia)
Dr. Mones Abu-Asab, Dr. Maria Campos, Mr. Chris Ardeljan, Preceptors

Iain Forrest 
Genetic Screening of Uveal Coloboma and Other Developmental Ocular Defects in Zebrafish via CRISPR-Cas9 Mutagenesis 
University of Maryland, College Park (Maryland)
Dr. Brian Brooks, Dr. Sunit Dutta, Preceptors

Jackson Gao


Jackson Gao 
Mutational Analysis of the Oculocutaneous Albinism 2 Gene 
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York)
Dr. Xinjing Wang, Preceptor

Shaimar González Morales 
DIVRO
Increased CX3CR1 Signaling by Exogenous CX3CR1 Rescues Retinal Degeneration: Implication of New Treatment for Renitis Pigmentosa 
Marshall University (West Virginia)
Dr. Matthew Zabel, Dr. Lian Zhao, Dr. Yikui Zhang, Dr. Wai Wong, Preceptors

Juliet Hartford 
DIVRO
The Fundus Autofluorescence Pattern Associated with Progression to Geographic Atrophy 
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York)
Dr. Emily Chew, Preceptor

Danielle Horridge


Danielle Horridge 
Modulation of Mucosal Lymphoid Tissue of the Ocular Surface by Group 3 Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILC3s) 
College of William and Mary (Virginia)
Dr. Anthony St. Leger, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Laura Keehan 
Single Point Alterations in Pigment Epithelium-derived Factor (PEDF) Modify Receptor Binding Affinity and Retinoprotective Activity 
Rice University (Texas)
Dr. S. Patricia Becerra, Dr. Preeti Subramanian, Preceptors

Lauren Killingsworth 
Modeling Leber Congenital Amaurosis and Joubert Syndrome Using Patient Fibroblasts and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 
Stanford University (California)
Dr. Anand Swaroop, Dr. Hiroko Shimada-Ishii, Dr. Milton English, Dr. Tiziana Cogliati, Preceptors

Eric Kudiwu 
DIVRO
STAT6 Confers Protection Against Development of Severe Uveitis 
Georgetown Preparatory School (Maryland)
Dr. Charles Egwuagu, Dr. Cheng-Rong Yu, Mr. Rashid Mahdi, Preceptors

Melissa Lester


Melissa Lester 
DIVRO
Utility of PCR from Ocular Fluid in Infectious Uveitis 
Temple University School of Medicine (Pennsylvania)
Dr. H. Nida Sen, Dr. Bob Nussenblatt, Preceptors

Caitlyn McCafferty 
Deep Mutation Analysis of Proteins for Inherited Eye Disease 
University Of Maryland (Maryland)
Dr. Yuri Sergeev, Preceptor

Jerry Mi 
Sanger Sequencing Based Multigene Mutation Screening for Achromatopsia 
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Maryland)
Dr. Xinjing Wang, Mr. Keith Wetherby, Preceptors

Howard Nicholson


Howard Nicholson 
DIVRO
Intragenic SNP Haplotypes Associated a Mutation in PROM1 in Two Pakistani Pedigrees with Autosomal Recessive Retinitis Pigmentosa. 
Poolesville High School (Maryland)
Dr. Yabin Chen, Dr. J. Fiedling Hejtmancik, Preceptors

Anesu Nyawata 
DIVRO
Elevated Levels of S100B Protein Promote the Development of Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis 
Rhodes College (Tennessee)
Dr. Charles Egwuagu, Dr. Cheng-Rong Yu, Mr. Rashid Mahdi, Dr. Wanwisa Promsote, Preceptors

Alexandra Pietraszkiewicz 
Assessment of Risk Alleles Associated with Age-Related Macular Degeneration 
University of Connecticut School of Medicine (Connecticut)
Dr. Rinki Ratna Priya, Dr. Anand Swaroop, Preceptors

Amanda Ray 
Retinoid Isomerase Activity in RPE65 Knockin Mouse Models 
Shepherd University (West Virginia)
Dr. Yan Li, Mr. Todd Duncan, Dr. Michael Redmond, Preceptors

Jose Salazar 
DIVRO
Facilitating Phylogenetic Interpretations of aCGH Analysis with New Software 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts)
Dr. Mones Abu-Asab, Preceptor

Sohee Shim


Sohee Shim 
Effect of HDACi Givinostat on the Polarization of Th-17 Cells in Autoimmune Uveitis 
George Washington University (District of Columbia)
Dr. Sarah Clarke, Dr. Baoying Liu, Dr. Robert Nussenblatt, Preceptors

Laken Shumate 
Identification of Gut Microbial Protein Exhibiting Mimicry to Retinal Protein by RNA-seq. This is to be consistent with the rest of the format.
University of North Carolina (North Carolina)
Dr. Mary Mattapallil, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptor

Margaret Starostik 
Transcriptome Expression Analysis in Human Retina with Age-related Macular Degeneration 
Georgetown University (District of Columbia)
Dr. Rinki Ratnapriya, Dr. Anand Swaroop, Preceptors

Christina Stevens 
Cellular and Molecular Changes at the Wound Site of a Ground Squirrel Optic Nerve Crush 
Holton-Arms School (Maryland)
Dr. Jingxing Ou, Ms. Tantai Zhao, Mr. Vincent Kunze, Dr. Wei Li, Preceptors

Brianna Stroud-Williams


Brianna Stroud-Williams 
DIVRO
Extracting a High-Dimensional Single Cell Data through Flow Cytometry Analysis of Eye Immune Cells with Novel Bioinformatics Tools 
Gallaudet University (District of Columbia)
Mr. Rafael Villasmil, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Dahlia Wilson
DIVRO
Evidence for Cross Orientation Facilitation in Primate Area M
Richard Montgomery High School (Maryland)
Dr. Bruce Cumming, Preceptor

Rebecca Xi 
Nitisinone as a Potential Treatment for Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 4 Using a Mouse Model 
University of Maryland, College Park (Maryland)
Dr. Brian Brooks, Dr. Ighovie Onojafe, Preceptors

Mohammad Yazdanie 
Rod-Mediated Dark Adaptation as a Functional Outcome Measure in the Study of Age-Related Macular Degeneration 
Stony Brook University School of Medicine (New York)
Dr. Catherine Cukras, Dr. Wai Wong, Preceptors

Jenny (Joo Hee) Yoon


Jenny (Joo Hee) Yoon 
Effects of Aberrant Splicing in Dominant-Acting RPE65 Mutation 
University of Rochester (New York)
Dr. Eugenia Poliakov, Dr. T. Michael Redmond, Preceptors

Angela Zhou 
B Cells Versus Dendritic Cells as Antigen-presenting Cells in Autoimmune Disease: Uptake of the Auto-antigen IRBP 
Poolesville High School (Maryland)
Dr. Sophia Jeon, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

The NIH is dedicated to building a diverse community in its training and employment programs. HHS, NIH, and NEI are Equal Opportunity Employers.

Last updated: June 27, 2019