The College of Pharmacy awarded eight 2019/2020 Undergraduate Research Awards this summer. Despite the unique COVID-19-related circumstances that presented many challenges to their research experiences, below are but a few of the comments from our Undergraduate Research Award recipients.
Heather Carney
Project title: Prevalence and Risk Factors of Substance Use Disorder in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Supervisor: Dr. Kaarina Kowalec
“Receiving the College of Pharmacy Undergraduate Summer Research Award enabled me to receive mentorship in the composition of a research question, study design, and statistical analysis while working remotely from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Having the opportunity to continue my research remotely allowed me to stay connected to the university community during times of physical distancing and provided me with valuable financial support to continue my studies in the College of Pharmacy.”
John Del Rosario
Project title: Nitric oxide effects on brain pericyte calcium signaling and blood flow control
Supervisor: Dr. Jillian Stobart
“As a returning summer student, we had collected data last summer which I had the chance to analyze and kept me busy for most of the summer. As a lab, we had weekly meetings on zoom to check up on each other’s progress, as well as journal club where lab members get a chance to present relevant journal articles. Overall, I enjoyed my experience working in Dr. Stobart’s lab especially under these unprecedented times.”
Thor Hendrickson-Rebizant
Project title: The activity and inhibition of DOT1L for the treatment of leukemia
Supervisor: Dr. Ted Lakowski
“This summer came with the unique challenge of very limited access to the campus labs. To make up for the lost time in the lab, for the first half of the summer Dr. Lakowski had me do literature searches and reviews pertaining to inhibitors of epigenetic enzymes particularly pertaining to post translational modifications to histones by DOT1L. The second half of the summer was spent presenting and summarizing selected articles to the lab that were derived from the literature search. The goal is to eventually write a review article on the pleotropic effects of new drugs targeting epigenetic processes.”
Taylor Peters
Project title: Inter-Professional Education-related work
Supervisor: Dr. Ruby Grymonpre
“The major project we focused on was a follow-up survey to the Health Canada-funded Accreditation of Interprofessional Health Education (AIPHE) surveys, which were conducted between 2007-2011. This follow-up survey was intended to ascertain whether programs across Canada were having success or difficulties implementing IPE into their programs, along with surveying professions not previously included in the AIPHE surveys, to see whether IPE has “rolled out” to other health and social service professions.”
David Fuss
Supervisor: Dr. Jamison Falk
“This summer I had the opportunity to analyze prescription opioid dispensing data from the 2018 Manitoba Opioid Atlas through an in-depth evaluation of trends in the separate Regional Health Authorities in the province. These findings will allow us to inform policy and regulatory bodies in the province, and further, to narrow our focus on which opioids to look out for in clinical practice in certain regions of the province and make appropriate interventions to reduce the risk of patients experiencing adverse events while using opioids.”
Snehit Patel
Project title: New Strategies to Preserve Insulin Producing Beta Cells in Diabetic Patients
Supervisor: Dr. Lucy Marzban
“Overall, this summer research learning experiencing with Dr. Marzban was amazing and provided excellent exposure to the research field. In addition to introducing me to the research field this experience also allowed me to gain knowledge and skills that will help me in my future career as a pharmacist.”
Tushar Upreti
Project title: Protein Corona formation on Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) and its effects on AuNP diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities
Supervisor: Dr Hagar Labouta
“Although COVID restrictions created many barriers for me to continue working on my research project, Dr. Labouta was able to react promptly and create many learning opportunities for me this summer. I would like to thank Dr. Labouta and the College of Pharmacy for providing me with this great learning opportunity. I also hope many other students will be able to take advantage of this award in the future to learn research techniques and appreciate the importance of research in healthcare.”
Christine Vaccaro
Project titles: COVID-19 National Lockdowns and Perinatal Outcomes: A Rapid Review; Antiepileptic drug (AED) exposure during pregnancy and neonatal birth weight outcomes: Systematic review and meta-analysis; New generation AED use during pregnancy and the risk of ASD: A Scoping Review; and New generation AED use during pregnancy and the risk of ADHD: A Scoping Review
Supervisor: Dr. Sherif Eltonsy
“This summer I’ve continued my work with Dr. Sherif Eltonsy’s group as a summer research student and took part in several mother-infant health projects. I am currently reviewing the impact of national COVID-19 lockdowns on perinatal outcomes such as low birth weight, preterm births, and stillbirth. I am is looking forward to presenting my work at the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology Annual Conference in September and other local conferences throughout the year.”