Clinical and Translational Research Symposium

Event's Successful Second Year Showcases Trainee, Faculty Projects from Across UH and Neighboring Institutions

May 27 — With more than 70 projects presented in poster or podium sessions, the second Clinical and Translational Research Symposium May 9 at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy showcased the cutting-edge work of undergraduate, graduate and professional students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty researchers from across the Houston area. 

The range of projects included better diagnostics and treatments for a variety of life-threatening and debilitating diseases, from cancer and infectious diseases to opioid use disorder and neurodegeneration. The daylong program featured 45 poster presentations, 16 podium presentations and 10 short talks by trainees and faculty investigators from across several UH colleges, as well as neighboring institutions, such as Baylor College of Medicine, UTHealth Houston, MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School, Texas Southern University, Texas A&M Health, and the Houston Methodist Research Institute. 

Paul Harris, Ph.D., FACMI, FIAHSI, Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor and Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research vice president for research informatics in Nashville, Tenn., presented the keynote. Harris discussed his work creating and serving as faculty lead for the REDCap data collection and management platform and REDCap Consortium, which serves more than 7,700 academic, nonprofit, and government institutional partners across 160 countries. He also provided insights into All of Us, a data resource platform that stores health data from participants across the United States, and ResearchMatch, a national recruitment registry which pairs over 120,000 potential study volunteers with research teams at 251 U.S.-based institutions.

Three researchers were honored for their poster presentations: 

First place – Bilqees Fatima, Pharm.D., UHCOP Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. candidate, for "Predictors of Progression-Free Survival Following CDK4/6 Inhibitor Therapy in Patients with Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer" 

Second place – Yasindu Seneviratne, UH Biology and Biochemistry graduate student, for "In-vitro assessment of the Association of Global ISGylation and the Androgen Receptor in Endocrine Resistant Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer"

Third place – Cara Guernsey-Biddle, M.S., MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School Ph.D. student, for "The Promise of Multi-targeted ADC Therapy in Colorectal Cancer: Epiregulin and Amphiregulin."

In addition, three researchers were recognized for their podium presentations: 

First place – Sophia Huang, MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School, for "Estrogen-Related Receptor Alpha Promotes Muscle Regeneration and Mitigates Myopathy in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy"

Second place – Olajumoke Olateju, UHCOP Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. candidate, for "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Buprenorphine Dosing on Adherence and Opioid Overdose Risk"

Third place – Dipali Rinker, Ph.D., LPC, UHCOP research assistant professor, for "Minority Stress Impacts Use of Medication Assisted Treatments/Medications for Opioid Use Disorder."

To view more photos from the CTRS 2025, visit the Flickr photo album.