17th Annual DAPM Scientific Evening
The UCLA Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (DAPM) hosted its 17th Annual Scientific Evening on March 11, 2025, at Tamkin Auditorium in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The DAPM Scientific Evening is an annual symposium that highlights the academic achievements of our research fellows, resident physicians, fellow physicians, and medical students.
This year’s Scientific Evening was well attended and buzzing with engaging conversation between participants and guests. Oral and poster presentations showcasing a multitude of basic science and clinical research topics in Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine happened throughout the B-Level. Soban Umar, MD, PhD, Thomas M. Grove Endowed Chair and Associate Residency Program Director for Resident Research and Scholarly Activity, served as the event’s moderator. The special Guest Judge of the evening was Patricia Kapur Visiting Professor, Dr. Max Kelz, a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as Vice Chair of Research. The other judges included Brittany Burton, MD, MAS, MHS, K. Elliott Higgins III, MD, Andrew Hudson, MD, PhD, Laleh Jalilian, MD, Lisa Lee, MD, Maziar Nourian, MD, Parisa Partownavid, MD, and Tristan Grogan, MS. We would like to acknowledge and offer gratitude to the symposium organizers for their time, dedication, and hard work to make the event a success: Thomas Vondriska, PhD, Soban Umar, MD, PhD, and the Clinical Research Team.
The following were the awardees from the 2025 DAPM Scientific Evening:
| Award | Awardee |
|---|---|
| 1st Place Resident | Nilson Wu, MD – Differential lung ventilation in critical care: In-vivo model demonstrates clinical feasibility (Mentor: N. Hoftman) |
| 2nd Place Resident | Eileen Nguyen, MD, PhD – Brainstem modulation of nociception by periaqueductal gray neurons expressing the m-opioid receptor in mice (Mentor: N. Massaly) |
| 1st Place Fellow | Robert Sutter, MD – Transesophageal echocardiography and dysphagia in lung transplantation (Mentor: J. Neelankavil) |
| 2nd Place Fellow | Jason Batten, MD, MA – Preoperative pulmonary artery pulsatility index is associated with acute kidney injury after bilateral lung transplantation (Mentor: L. Saddic) |
| 1st Place Research Trainee | Kyle Scranton – Cardiac glycoside-driven positive inotropy requires allosteric inactivation of the sodium-calcium exchanger by intracellular sodium (Mentors: M. Ottolia and R. Olcese) |
| 2nd Place Research Trainee | Lejla Medzikovic, PhD: Biglycan underlies sex differences in the pathophysiology of pulmonary hypertension (Mentor: M. Eghbali) |
| Best Overall Presentation and Recipient of the Leonard F. Walts MD Research Excellence Award | Varina Clark Onwunyi, MD – TRPV4 as a potential therapeutic target for pulmonary hypertension-induced right ventricular failure (Mentor: S. Umar) |
The mentor/mentee duo of Dr. Umar and Varina Clark Onwunyi, MD, have had the unique honor of receiving the prestigious Leonard F. Walts Excellence in Research Award multiple times. Dr. Umar received this award four times as a resident from 2013-2016, and now Dr. Clark Onwunyi has received this award twice under Dr. Umar’s mentorship, both in 2023 and now 2025.
We look forward to coming together again next year for another night of education, learning, and celebration!