The Stony Brook Department of Surgery and Renaissance School of Medicine held their Annual Research Day on May 1st. The 2024 event, at Stony Brook Hospital's MART Auditorium, opened with comments from Professor and Department of Surgery Chairman, Apostolos K. Tassiopoulos, MD, FACS; Knapp Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University, Peter Igarashi, MD; and Jon P. Longtin, PhD, PE, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Dean of Research, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS).
Panayotis Thanos, MD, of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo, followed with his keynote speech. Dr. Thanos, a Senior Research Scientist and Research professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and the Director of the Behavior Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, presented, "Utilization of Behavioral Pharmacology, Imaging, and Biomarkers in Translational Research."
The first Oral Presentation Session was moderated by Sonya Marcus, MD, and featured talks by:
- Hamza Malick (with Discussant Amanda Sosulski, MD), "The Effect of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement on Mitral Regurgitation Over Time: A Retrospective Single Center Analysis"
- Michael Froehlich, MD, (with Discussant Anastasia Bakoulis, DO), "Where Are We With Endoscopic Resection for Clinical Stage 1 Rectal Cancer? A National Cancer Database Analysis"
- Steven J. Chen, BA, (with Discussant Christopher Vanison, MD), "Lung Cancer and Radiation Pneumonitis"
- Priya Aggarwal (with Discussant Jonathan Martin, MD), "Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Outcomes and Disparities During the COVID-19 Pandemic"
During the coffee break, participants in the Oral Poster Competition presented their research to judges Andrea Kalogeropoulos, MD, MPH, PhD; Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, MD; and Olga Aroniadis, MD, MS. Poster presenters included:
- Shamanth Murundi (mentored by Nicos Labropoulos, PhD), "Natural History of Symptomatic Calf Deep Vein Thrombosis and Relation to Obstruction and Reflux Development"
- Samara A. Sober, BS, (mentored by Randeep S. Jawa, MD), "Getting With the Guidelines: Activation Protocols for Geriatric Trauma"
- Nina D. Kosciuszek, DO, (mentored by Georgios Georgakis, MD, PhD), "Enhanced Recovery After Surgery in Pancreatic Surgery: A Single Center Quality Improvement"
- Alisa Khomutova, MD, (mentored by Konstantinos Spaniolas, MD), "Socioeconomic Disparities in Perioperative and Long-Term Outcomes of Adolescent Bariatric Surgery"
After the coffee break and poster presentations, part two of the Oral Presentation Sessions was moderated by Suresh Yelika, MD, and included talks by:
- Gurtej Singh, PhD, (with Discussant Isadora Botwinick, MD), "Evaluating the Healing Efficacy of Engineered Skin Grafts on Through-and-Through Rodent Skin Injuries Over Time"
- Cuilee Sha (with Discussant Gurtej Singh, PhD), "A Graded Neonatal Mouse Model of Necrotizing Enterocolitis Demonstrates That Mild Enterocolitis Is Sufficient To Activate Microglia..."
- Shiffoni Sukhlal, ScM (with Discussant Helen Hsieh, MD, PhD), "Dynamic Remodeling of Thrombi: Novel Insights Through FAPI-PET Imaging approach for Thrombosis in Animal Models and Cellular Analysis"
The event came to a close with the 2024 Research Day award-winners announcement. Doctors Tassiopoulos and Aaron Sasson, Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology, presented awards to:
- Nina D. Kosciuszek, DO - Oral Poster Competition Winner
- Jonathan Price, MD (Cardiothoracic Surgery) - Outstanding Faculty Teaching Scholar
- Christine Ward, MD - Outstanding Resident Teaching Scholar
Surgery Research Day 2025 will be held in May of 2025. More details will be announced when available.
For additional photos and an archive of previous Research Day articles and images, please click here.
The Department of Surgery wishes to thank the following individuals:
Dept. of Surgery Research Day Planning Committee
- Aaron Sasson, MD
- Gurtej Singh, PhD
- Andreea Fodor, MA, PhD
Research Day Coordinators
- Luis Ehrman Jr
- Serra Izmirligil
Research Day Volunteer Staff
- Victoria Boufis, BS
- Andrew Bryan, BA
- Tracey Erickson