2016 NIH Summer Poster Day Participants

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 twenty nine students from the NEI presented their research at the event:

Modupe Adetunji
DIVRO
Axiogenic and Neuroprotective Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in a Rat Optic Nerve Crush Model
Princeton University (New Jersey)
Dr. Ben Mead, Dr. Stanislav Tomarev, Preceptors

Keyla Bordonada Collazo
DIVRO
Human and Murine Immune Cells can Recognize and Respond to an Ocular Commensal
Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine (Puerto Rico)
Dr. Anthony St Leger, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Elaine Bucknam
Automated Behavioral Assessments: Establishment of Species and Sex Baselines
St. Mary's College of Maryland (Maryland)
Mr. David Mallon, Dr. Arthur Maclarty, Dr. James Raber, Preceptors

Bonnie Douglas
Microbiota-derived Stimuli Promote Spontaneous Uveitis by Activating Retina-specific T Cells
University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania)
Dr. Reiko Yamane, Dr. Ryan Salvador, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Grace Eddy
Longitudinal Follow Up of Patients with X-Linked Retinoschisis
Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School (Maryland)
Dr. Elizabeth Murphy, Dr. Catherine Cukras, Dr. Paul Sieving, Preceptors

Jorge Ferrari Escoto
DIVRO
IDEA: An IPSC Database and Enotebook Application
Northwood High School (Maryland)
Dr. Kapil Bharti, Preceptor

Aarti Hinduja
Natural History of ABCA4 Retinopathy: Growth of Central Atrophy Measured with Multimodal Imaging
University of Maryland, College Park (Maryland)
Dr. Brett Jeffrey, Dr. Laryssa Huryn, Dr. Brian Brooks, Preceptors

Ranganath Kathawate
Role of IL-34 in the Pathogenesis of Autoimmune Uveitis
International Academy High School (Michigan)
Dr. Mary Mattapallil, Preceptor

Hima Konduru
Visual Function Analysis of Transgenic Mouse Lines that Develop Spontaneous Inflammatory Disease in the Eye
Walter Johnson High School (Maryland)
Dr. Yingyos Jittayasothorn, Dr. Reiko Horai, Preceptors

Annapurna Kuppa
Understanding the Mutational Effects of MYO7A Gene in Usher Syndrome Type 1b
Johns Hopkins University (Maryland)
Dr. Yuri Sergeev, Preceptor

Adam Lazere
DIVRO
Morphology, Dynamic Behavior and Activation Markers of Repopulated Retinal Microglia
Oberlin College (Ohio)
Dr. Wai Wong, Dr. Yikui Zhang, Preceptors

Daniel Lulli
DIVRO
Large-scale Purification of Recombinant Pigment Epithelium-derived Factor (PEDF) Forms
Bowdoin College (Maine)
Dr. S. Patricia Becerra, Preceptor

Rebecca McCoy
DIVRO
Advancing Precision Medicine: Development of a Deep Genotype-Phenotype Database for Heritable Eye Disorders Morehouse School of Medicine (Georgia)
Dr. Robert Hufnagel, Dr. David McGaughey, Dr. Brian Brooks, Preceptors

Nattacha Munakata
Analysis of Posttranscriptional Regulation of RPE65 Gene in Cultured Human ARPE-19 Cells Using In Silico and Vitro Assay
George Mason University (Virginia)
Dr. Eugenia Poliakov, Dr. Olga Postnikova, Dr. Michael Redmond, Preceptors

Anesu Nyawata
DIVRO
Analysis of Exosomes in Ophthalmology Research Using Flow Cytometry
Rhodes College (Tennessee)
Mr. Rafael Villasmil, Dr. Rachel Caspi, Preceptors

Rachel Owusu-Lewis
DIVRO
Genome-wide linkage analysis in a consanguineous Pakistani family with autosomal recessive congenital cataracts
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Georgia Campus (Georgia)
Dr. Patricia Cabrera, Dr. J. Fielding Hejtmancik, Preceptors

Nadia Parmhans
Combinatorial Genetics of Neurotrophin Receptor cRet and Brn3 Transcription Factors Defines Isolated Populations of Retinal Ganglion Cells
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Maryland)
Dr. Szilard Sajgo, Dr. Jingwen Niu, Dr. Tudor Badea, Dr. Wenqin Luo, Preceptors

Kevin Peralta
Rico Mouse: A Novel Mouse Model for Coloboma
E.L. Haynes PCS High School (District of Columbia)
Dr. Ramakrishna Alur, Dr. Brian Brooks, Preceptors

Natalia Santiago
DIVRO
Investigating CGI-58 and G0S2 as regulators of lipase activity for retinal protection
Inter American University of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico)
Dr. S. Patricia Becerra, Ms. Jeaneé Bullock, Preceptors

Jayram Sastry
Ultrastructural Study of the Intracellular Effects of the Anti-Retroviral Treatment Nevirapine
St. Albans School (District of Columbia)
Dr. Mones Abu-Asab, Preceptor

Matt Shumway
Protein Expression in Human Adult Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells: Four Day versus Four Month
University of Virginia (Virginia)
Dr. Michael Redmond, Dr. Todd Duncan, Preceptors

Hanna Tso
Engineering Biocomposite Scaffolds to Mimic Biomechanical Microenvironment of Outer Retina
Purdue University (Indiana)
Dr. Vasudha Surampudi, Dr. Anand Swaroop, Preceptors

Tareq Uddin
Morphological Characterizations of Retinal Pigment Epithelium to Assess and Correlate Disease Phenotypes with Cell Shape
University of Maryland, College Park (Maryland)
Dr. Nathan Hotaling, Dr. Kapil Bharti, Dr. Nicholas Schaub, Dr. Aman George, Preceptors

Gregory Vernon
Employing Optical Coherence Tomography to Measure Retinal Thickness in Mice Treated with Acetazolamide and in Mouse Models of X-linked Congenital Stationary Night Blindness
University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (Tennessee)
Dr. Haohua Qian, Preceptor

Kathryn Wall
Different Inputs to Caudate Head and Tail for Different Types of Reward Values
Union College (New York)
Mr. Whitney Griggs, Dr. Okihide Hikosaka, Preceptors

Tianyi Wang
Identification of Proteins Interacting with Olfactamedin 1 in the AMPAR Receptor Complex
Princeton University (New Jersey)
Dr. Naoki Nakaya, Dr. Stanislav Tomarev, Preceptors

Toria Yan
Whole Blood Phospho Flow Cytometry Assay: An Optimization for Clinical Sample Processing
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts)
Dr. Lotta Utriainen, Dr. Benjamin Chaigne-Delalande, Preceptors

Yizhen Zhang
Morphological Characterization of Neurons in the Tree Shrew Retina
University of California, Berkeley (California)
Mr. Vincent Kunze, Dr. Wei Li, Preceptors

Helen Zhao
Characterization of Defects in the Retinal Pigmented Epithelium Caused By Targeted Deletion of MicroRNA-204
Richard Montgomery HS (Maryland)
Dr. Connie Zhang, Dr. Nathan Hotaling, Dr. Kapil Bharti, Dr. Sheldon Miller, Preceptors