A highlight of the graduate school year

This year was the graduate school's 35th annual symposium. Long-standing faculty have seen the event evolve.

"It's grown in stature and importance to the point of becoming a highlight of the graduate school year," says Bruce Horazdovsky, Ph.D., associate dean of academic affairs for the graduate school. "The event brings everyone together from all campuses and reinforces our community as one graduate school."

Melissa Davis, Ph.D., director of the Institute of Translational Genomic Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, delivered the Distinguished Findling Lecture. She described her career-long work studying the genetics of breast cancer in women of African descent and the racial health disparities that exist in the detection, identification and treatment of the disease.

For students, the symposium poster session was an opportunity to describe their research, ask questions, and learn about new topics. In the poster sessions, students stood alongside printed summaries of their experiments-to-date, containing graphs, images, and explanations.

Esther Rodman, a sixth-year graduate student who is completing her Ph.D. with cancer researcher John Hawse, Ph.D., shared results in which she identified an existing, but yet unused, drug that may be effective against ovarian cancer cells. She used 3D-printed cells to test the therapy. Charles Capron, a fifth-year student in the lab of biomedical engineer Matthew Urban, Ph.D., described his findings clarifying ultrasound measurements of blood vessels — work that aims to improve the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

The poster presentations can help shape students' approaches. "The informal conversations and chance interactions can certainly lead to new ideas and directions," says Dr. Urban.

Scientific talks

In addition to the 198 poster presentations, eight students who were nominated and selected by each graduate track gave formal talks, presenting their work and taking enthusiastic and thoughtful questions from fellow students and faculty.

Three Minute Thesis

Nine students competed in the Three Minute Thesis competition, a contest that takes place at graduate schools around the world. Contestants aim to describe their projects in a succinct, engaging presentation. With only one slide and no props or costumes, the competitors used imaginative metaphors to describe complex biological processes to nonscientist judges. One student described a tumor and the molecules in its micro-environment as a villainous character challenged by protagonists from a movie; another likened researching a rare disease to  poet Robert Frost's well-known image of walking in the woods and taking the road “less traveled by.”

The importance of scientific communication

"Scientific communication is a critical part of Ph.D. training, as it plays into being able to give strong seminars, write compelling manuscripts and obtain higher-level science jobs," says immunology researcher Aaron Johnson, Ph.D.

Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. at Mayo Clinic in 2001 and remembers presenting his research at the symposiums as a student in the lab of now-emeritus professor Larry Pease, Ph.D. He says the presentations helped him develop skills to present at national meetings and to interview for postdoctoral positions.

Today, as a faculty member and graduate school mentor, Dr. Johnson hopes his students begin to exercise the same scientific communication muscles. Javonte Thelwell, a second-year student in Dr. Johnson's lab, gave a poster presentation sharing his experiments as he's been introduced to new technologies in the lab. With enthusiasm and care, he described how the immunology concepts he’s learned so far will shape his Ph.D. research over the next few years, studying how lack of oxygen affects neurons in various disease states.

Student winners: Poster presentation

Student winners of the poster presentations, selected by faculty and postdoctoral student judges.

Student winners: Three Minute Thesis competition

Student winners of the Three Minute Thesis competition.