UCLA Annual Scientific Evening

Our 14^th Annual Scientific Evening

For the first time in two years, our department on March 15 hosted our Annual Scientific Evening in person, featuring posters and presentations from the remarkable clinical and bench research work continually in progress in our laboratories and operating rooms.

We welcomed guest visiting professor Harriet Hopf, MD, from the University of Utah, who joined us as a judge of the research, along with Drs. Brent Ershoff, Matthew Fischer, Natale Naim, Prince Neelankavil, Michela Ottolia, and Theodora Wingert of our faculty. Soban Umar, MD, PhD, our Associate Program Director for Resident Research, moderated the oral presentations.

Congratulations to all the awardees, and thanks to all the participants and their mentors for your remarkable research accomplishments over the past year!  Special thanks also to Jennifer Scovotti, Staff Research Associate, who played a key role in organizing the evening’s events.

Here are the winning projects:

Best Overall Presentation and Recipient of the Leonard F. Watts MD Research Excellence Award:

John Park, MD, PhD: “Right Ventricular Fibrosis in Pulmonary Hypertension:  A Potential Therapeutic Target?”

First Place Fellow:

Stewart Smith, MD: “Racial Disparities in Postoperative Outcomes for Heart Failure Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery:  A NSQIP Analysis”

Second Place Fellow:

Michael Tien, MD: “The Impact of COVID-19 on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Cardiac Procedural Care”

First Place Resident:

Cecilia Canales, MD, MPH: “Preoperative Frailty Leads to Intraoperative Hypotension and Worse Postoperative Outcomes”

Second Place Resident:

Brittany Burton, MD: “Digital Divide: Disparities in Patient Perception of a Preoperative Telemedicine Bariatric Surgery Program”

First Place Research Fellow:

Gregoire Ruffenach, PhD: “HNRNPA2B1: An RNA Binding Protein that Regulates Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension-induced Right Ventricular Failure”

Second Place Research Fellow:

Marina Angelini, PhD: “The Voltage-dependent Structural Transitions Governing the Opening of a Human T-type Calcium Channel”

Related: Residency and Fellowship Training at UCLA >