Third Annual Research Day
The Third Annual Research Day was held at the Centre for Stem Cell Research on October 5th, 2012. The programme involved students and faculty highlighting the research activities of their departments. The quality and quantity of research in many fields, seen in the display of 88 posters from participating departments, showed the commitment and enthusiasm of both students and staff across many disciplines. The attendees interacted with poster presenters and other researchers.
The Chief Guest for the function, Dr. T. Jacob John, Emeritus Professor, Department of Virology addressed the gathering
and congratulated the presenters for the excellent quality of research. He stressed the importance of originality of research work and research publication. He said that the spirit of modern scientific medicine, unlike traditional medicine, has a much wider scope for questioning and in the process discovering newer relevant solutions, thus making it challenging and fruitful. The Director, Dr. Sunil Chandy, the Principal, Dr. Alfred Job Daniel and Additional Vice-Principal (Research), Dr. Nihal Thomas, emphasized the importance of research in CMC as a part of the institution's mandate to inculcate the ‘spirit of inquiry’. The quality of research emerging from CMC has made the institution a leader in medical research.
The Judges for the poster and oral presentations were Drs. Anuradha Bose, Priya Abraham, Molly Jacob,R.V. Shaji,
Sanjay Kumar,Thomas V. Paul, Thambu David and Vinod Abraham.The event concluded with the distribution of prizes and medals for the best posters and oral presentations.
The First Prize for best poster went to Ms. Sreerohini Sagi (Biochemistry - Effects of alcohol on proteins involved in iron absorption in the duodenum in mice); Mr. Saravanan Ganesh (Haematology - Mechanism of Synergy between Bortezomib and Arsenic Trioxide in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia and Clinical Efficacy in Relapsed Patients); Dr. Dwaiyapan Sen (Haematology - Targeted modifications in adeno-associated virus serotype (AAV)- 8
capsid improves its hepatic gene transfer efficiency in vivo), and Dr. Rajat Raghunath (Surgery Unit-II - Effect of radiation on the anal sphincter).
The Second Prize for best poster went to Mr. Ajay Abraham (Haematology - ABC transporter expression in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Association with in vitro cytotoxicity and prognostic markers); Dr. Indrani Sen (Vascular Surgery - Use of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell therapy as a limb salvage procedure in non-reconstructable critical limb ischaemia), and Mr. Lenny Vasanthan (PMR - Shoulder Electromyographic activity during Push up exercise).
The Third Prize for best poster went to Dr. Rohin Mittal (Surgery-II - Patterns and risk factors for local recurrence in rectal cancer: A single centre experience); Ms. Ansu Abu Alex (Haematology - Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells in Acute Leukemia and its Association with Conventional Cytogenetic and Molecular Risk Factors); Dr. Paul Ravindran (Radiation Physics - Bench-top x-ray cone beam CT -A potential system for small animal imaging?); Dr. Ratna Prabha (Clinical Pharmacology - Does the dose and area under the concentration time curve for Mycophenolic Acid vary between paediatric and adult patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus? Interim Report); Dr. Veeramanikandan (Biochemistry - Do polymorphisms in the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene affect clinical response to clozapine in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia?); Dr. Latha N. (Physiology - The funny current is involved in the rhythm generation in rat heart), and Dr. Swetha Raman (Physiology - Sodium Calcium exchanger and Voltage gated L type calcium channels are involved in the Rhythm generation in rat's heart).
The First Prize for Oral Presentation went to Dr. Abitha Sukumaran (Biochemistry - Gene expression of iron-related proteins in the duodenum is up-regulated in patients with chronic inflammatory disorders), the Second Prize to Dr. Deepak T. Abraham (Endocrine Surgery - Identification of novel gene regulators in Medullary thyroid cancer), the Third Prize to Dr. Visalakshi Peravali (Biostatistics - Estimation of First Mean Passage Time using Markov model and comparison of risk factors of malnutrition using Markov Regression models) and the Consolation Prize to Dr. Gayatri Deshpande (Surgery III - Extended multi organ resection for advanced gastric cancer).
The best Oral Presentation by a medical student was awarded to Ms. Nidhi Cherian (II year - Prevalence and risk factors for falls in the elderly).