Practicing physicians, residents and medical school students gathered to share their current research projects and learn about ongoing investigations during PCOM South Georgia PCOM’s annual Research Day on May 8.

Keynote speaker Jennifer McQuiston, DVM, deputy director in the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), began the event with an overview of some of the initiatives her division handles, which include investigating and responding to infectious disease threats that could have catastrophic consequences on the public’s health and safety, such as Ebola, Marburg, smallpox, anthrax, rabies, prions and others. Dr. McQuiston spoke to a full house of listeners and then fielded questions at the end of her presentations.

The event included poster presentations and podium talks by area student and professional researchers 

“Research Day here at PCOM South Georgia is an opportunity for our students to engage in scholarly work,” said Jennifer H. Shaw, PhD, Research Day Committee chair and chair of the department of biomedical sciences for the doctor of osteopathic medicine program at PCOM South Georgia. “It gives them the opportunity to ask a research question, go through the research process and interact with clinical researchers if they are presenting a clinical case report or involved in a clinical study. 

Madison Kreitz (DO ’25) presented a poster about the project on which she collaborated with two other researchers titled “When hitting the bull’s eye is a loss: a case of hydroxychloroquine induced maculopathy despite guideline-based dosing.” The case study reported a 64-year-old woman who had been treated with the drug hydroxychloroquine for rheumatoid arthritis and developed hydroxychloroquine retinopathy despite being given the medication according to the recommended dosage guidelines.

“A lot of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, which are pretty common diseases, are on hydroxychloroquine,” Kreitz said. “It's really important that they see an ophthalmologist to get screened for this bull's eye maculopathy. This condition, even though it's rare, does happen. This project really taught me, in my future practice, to make sure these patients are getting screened.”

Savannah Finley (DO ’26), and her group conducted a literature review of the currently available drugs that have been effective for treating systemic lupus erythematosus. 

“This information increased my medical knowledge as it comes to pharmacology,” she said. “Specifically, I learned a lot about the mechanism of action of the drugs and how those side effects of the drugs may not be preferable for one person or another. I also looked into the socioeconomic impacts of having one drug over another, and that just goes to show that knowing this information is going to help me treat my future patients, not only my rotations, but residency and beyond.”

During Research Day, projects were judged with awards presented the following week.  Winners included:

• Best in Show – “Assessment of bacterial diversity in South Georgia water sources using bacterial isolation and MALDI TOF-based identification” by Teighlor Livingston, Andrew Metry, Sammy Elmor, Steven Li, Hunter Medley, Alleluia Nishimwe, Nishi Patel, Gary Sellers, Daniel Torres, Girija Regmi, Allen Kalantari, Hemant K. Naikare, Nikita Mirajkar (PCOM-South Georgia and UGA Vet Diagnostic Lab)

•  Best Clinical Case Study – “Rare Variation of Hepatic Blood Supply: A Case Study” by Himanshu K. Rambhai and Frederick Johnson (PCOM South Georgia and Archbold Memorial Hospital)

• Best Original Research – “Comparing the capacity of 3 mathematical models to forecast tumor volume dynamics and predict individual head and neck cancer patient responses to radiotherapy” by Talha H. Syed, Mohammad U. Zahid and Heiko Enderling (PCOM South Georgia and MD Anderson)

• Best Cadaver/Biomed Project – “Investigating LVAD thrombosis in cadaveric heart model” by Bryan C. Hernandez, Anjali Saji, Mauricio Soto, Umer Khan, Peter Kotsiviras and Sebastian Egberts (PCOM South Georgia)

• Runner-Up "Best Clinical Case Study" Award – “A Case Control Study of the Association Between the Gut Microbiota and Colorectal Cancer: Exploring the Roles of Diet, Stress and Race” by Tiffany Carson, Byrd, Doratha A. Byrd, Kristen S. Smith, Daniel Carter, Michael Abaskaron, Rebecca B. Little, Sh'Nese Townsend Holmes, William J. van Der Pol, Elliot J. Lefkowitz, Casey D. Morrow, Andrew D. Fruge, Maria Gomez (Moffitt Cancer Center, Auburn University, University of Alabama Birmingham, PCOM South Georgia)

• Runner-Up "Best Original Research" Award – “Diagnostic Utility of Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers in Patients with Rapidly Progressive Dementia” by Lindsey A. Kuchenbecker, Philip W. Tipton, Yuka Martens, Matthew R. Brier, Nihal Satyadev, S. Richard Dunham, Evelyn B. Lazar, Maxwell V. Dacquel, Rachel L. Henson, Guojun Bu, Michael D. Geschwind, John C. Morris, Suzanne E. Schindler, Elizabeth Herries, Neill R. Graff-Radford, Gregory S. Day (PCOM South Georgia and Mayo Clinic)

• Runner Up "Best Cadaver/Biomedical Sciences Project" Award – “A Case Study of Malignant Breast Cancer with Metastasis to Lungs, Liver, Bone and Brain” by Oscar Acosta, Richard Lin, Arthur Lo, Alexandria Neal, Emily Kate Reagin, Brandon Worth and Shiv Dhiman (PCOM South Georgia)